 Some weeks, months, years, or decades thereafter, a very small fraction of these carriers, particularly those with an immunodeficiency, develop any one of various EBV-associated benign or malignant diseases, including, in extremely rare cases, Epstein–Barr virus-positive plasmablastic lymphoma.The virus in infected plasmablastic cells appears to be in its latency I phase; consequently, these infected cells express EBV products such as EBER nuclear RNAs and BART microRNAs.These RNAs promote infected cells to proliferate, avoid attack by the host's immune system's cytotoxic T-cells, and, possibly, block the infected cells' apoptosis (i.e.