innate and adaptive immune response to viral infection
Adaptive immune defenses. The immune response to viral infection comprises innate and adaptive defenses. The innate response, which we have discussed previously, functions continuously in a normal host without exposure to any virus.Most viral infections are controlled by the innate immune system. key feature of the adaptive immune system is memory. Repeat infections by the same virus are met immediately with a strong and specific response that usually effectively stops the infection with less reliance on the innate system. When we say we are immune to infection with a virus, we are talking about immune memory.