Final answer:
The statement is false; while latent infections do involve a dormant stage of the causative agent within the body, they are not classified based on being cytopathic, resistant, and opportunistic. Instead, latency is more related to the ability of the virus to evade immune detection and remain dormant within host cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
The description provided correlates with characteristics of latent infections, but incorrectly classifies them as cytopathic, resistant, and opportunistic, which are not exclusive traits of latent infections. In latent infections, the causative agent does not remain inactive due to resistance or opportunistic behavior but may be due to other factors such as the regulation of viral or host gene expressions.
A cytopathic virus is one that causes cell damage. An oncogenic virus is associated with cancer and can be either DNA or RNA viruses. Persistent infections include both latent and chronic infections. While latent infections involve the virus becoming dormant for an extended period, chronic infections involve continuous virus presence and replication without necessarily causing immediate symptoms.
Examples include the herpes simplex virus, which can remain dormant within the nervous system cells and reactivate under certain conditions, and HIV, which can enter a latency period before progressing to chronic and persistent infection.