Would a 2021 blood sample reflect a viral illness in 1996?

Long story short, in 1996 I traveled in a remote area of the Hunan Province in China. Following a solitary hike during which my hands may have come into contact with bird poop or something similar, I became frighteningly ill with symptoms that began with a painful nasal sensation, progressed to a stuffy nose, sore throat, congested lungs, and bodily aches, nausea and weakness so profound that death seemed welcome.

My husband evidently caught it from me as he experienced identical symptoms lagging a few days behind my illness. We both eventually recovered, and as far as we know infected no one else. (Additional details re timeline, symptoms, medical testing and diagnosis etc. available on request, but that’s the fundamental story.)

I’ve always believed I was the index case for some horrid virus that jumped animal-to-human thanks to my adventurous hiking, but which was, thankfully, not very human-to-human transmissible.

My GQ question is: assuming I did indeed contract some nearly lethal form of a corona or other type of virus, would a sophisticated analysis of my blood today show anything interesting? Or would the evidence of a 1996 viral illness be completely gone after 25 years?

I’m no doctor, but if blood tests can reveal a decades-previous exposure to hepatitis and mumps (as one of mine did), then I wouldn’t be surprised. But someone would probably have to be looking for some known distinctive marker, so it may depend on just how unusual your previous infection was.

Yeah, there’d probably be some antibody marker there, but it’d get lost in all the myriad other molecules in your blood unless someone knew exactly what to look for. Which, if this was a disease that genuinely only affected two humans in all of history, they wouldn’t.

They would have to know what they were looking for, but the answer is “Possibly yes.”

Yeah, who knows. It definitely wasn’t very transmissible - my parents-in-law were traveling with us, and they were fine. (We were terrified that my father in law would get it, as he was in ill health already and couldn’t afford to get sick.) However, for all I know there were local residents who caught it the way I did. I will never know what happened, but while on my walk I sat on a large log that had fallen over. I have a distinct memory of leaning back with my bare hands pushing into the tree bark - gawd only knows what bird or lizard poop I touched.

Anyway, I guess it’s a mystery that will never be solved. But I’ve always been curious as to whether my blood might contain a clue to whatever it was. It’s nice to have an answer to that question at least.

Antibody testing might reveal exposure to a known pathogen, but unless it’s limited to the locale you visited, there’s no way to tell if you were exposed there, or elsewhere.

I had to check with google. I remembered reading about some poor kid having died of AIDS-like symptoms in 1969 when it was unknown. His death was such a mystery they stored blood samples and when science became aware of HIV and AIDS tests became more advanced, the old samples were checked and they tested positive. This after 20 years of storage.
So the OPs scenario seems possible.

I have EDS. Which means I bruise very easy with little trauma to the skin. However, with broken bones and sprains, there’s no swelling. Sometimes bruising, depending on the level of the trauma to the skin. But, right now I have a broken foot, no swelling or bruising. Had a broken hand, no swelling or bruising. It’s crazy. Many broken fingers and toes, no swelling.

I can’t quite explain it myself. I’m wondering if it’s EDS related. But, I figured it was worth mentioning. Especially if anyone else has EDS symptoms or a family history.