Reports have revealed that American researchers have now managed to uncover the key to how a prolific and high-profile virus is able to infect individual’s inspite of them boasting a strong immune response, a discovery which might just open the way for development of vaccines against potentially killer pathogens like HIV and malaria.

In a recent study which was undertaken on monkeys, a team of scientists at the Oregon Health Sciences University discovered that a common cytomegalovirus (CMV), which has ended up infecting about 80% of the adult population, can easily overcome the body's capability to flush out infected cells, unlike most of the other common viruses.

"In essence, CMV is able to cutoff an infected cell's call for elimination. This allows CMV to overcome this critical immune barrier during re-infection", shared a Senior Scientists at the University, Klaus Frueh.

Although a CMV infection generally does not take a very serious form in adults, it can very well be deadly in infants, transplant patients and others who have suppressed and weak immune systems.

As CMV has the ability to bypass the body's immune responses, it has always been very difficult to make a vaccine against the same, but the latest study has revealed some important facts which could help medics fight it.