Good Boy: The GB Virus and the Symbiotic Possibilities of Infectious Disease Research

The history of the GB virus, nicknamed 'good boy' for the reported benefits it provides to human health, generates new insights into the political and economic conditions that lead to symbiotic relations with viruses. First identified in the context of hepatitis research in the mid-1990s, involving the molecular analysis of blood samples collected during viral surveillance in West Africa and 1960s hepatitis research in Chicago, GB virus infection was associated with slower rates of disease progression among people living with HIV. Contextualizing the GB virus alongside broader developments in 1990s bloodborne virus research, including advances in molecular biology, biotech interest in diagnostics, and biosecurity, this article foregrounds how one virus came to be considered symbiotic under specific conditions. By the early 2000s, biomedical researchers speculated that the GB virus might be useful as a kind of 'biovaccination', particularly in parts of Africa where access to effective HIV prevention and therapy was limited and which were considered a 'hotspot' for zoonotic viruses. As a viral stowaway with unexpected benefits for its hosts, the history of the GB virus represents a symbiotic perspective on the political and economic arrangements that usually define viruses as pathogens in infectious disease research.