Sheng G, Chen P, Wei Y, et al. - Since the exact etiology of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is unclear, therefore, researchers analyzed a collective viewpoint on the link between viral infection and IPF through this meta-analysis of 20 case-control studies including 1,287 participants from 10 countries. They explored Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Wiley Online Library databases to select studies describing the influence of viral infection on IPF. To evaluate the risk of virus in IPF, they computed the value of OR with 95% CI. Findings revealed a significantly increased risk of developing IPF, but not of exacerbation of IPF, in correlation with the presence of persistent or chronic, but not acute, viral infections including Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, human herpesvirus 7 and human herpesvirus 8. Based on these findings, viral infection was suggested as a potential risk factor for IPF.