re persistent vs chronic in article enea enea apple com enea applelink apple com horace enea writes can anyone out there tell me the difference between a persistent disease and a chronic one for example persistent hepatitis vs chronic hepatitis i don t think there is a general distinction rather there are two classes of chronic hepatitis chronic active hepatitis and chronic persistent hepatitis i can t think of any other disease where the term persistent is used with or in preference to chronic much as these two terms chronic active and chronic persistent sound fuzzy the actual distinction between the two conditions is often fairly fuzzy as well david rind rind enterprise bih harvard edu
