Our results appear to agree with this hypothesis, as carriers of the DRB1*09 allele had high CD8(+) and double-positive T lymphocyte counts and TNF levels, which may be indicative of an attempt to maintain a proinflammatory antiviral response to active EBV infection (39), as represented by the high viral load in carriers. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is Epstein-Barr virus infection.