Reasons why healthy people would intentionally want to get infected?
What would be a situation in modern times where normal, healthy people would want to get infected by a non-curable, but non-lethal, virus?
A virus that would have pretty nasty symptoms.
There is no compensation for getting infected.
The disease would not be easily spread, meaning that a person would have to "go out of their way" to get infected, most likely by injecting themselves, potentially even spending large amounts of cash just to aquire it on the black market.
There is no sign of any possible cure for said virus.
No fantasy elements.
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1 answer
Natural Vaccination.
Read about how Cowpox was used to vaccinate against Smallpox, this is our IRL first instance of vaccination against a disease.
The word "vaccination," coined by Jenner in 1796, is derived from the Latin root vaccinus, meaning of or from the cow. Once vaccinated, a patient develops antibodies that make them immune to cowpox, but they also develop immunity to the smallpox virus, or Variola virus. The cowpox vaccinations and later incarnations proved so successful that in 1980, the World Health Organization announced that smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated by vaccination efforts worldwide.
Your virus could be nasty enough to kill a newly arisen lethal disease; and for your story building may be the only known way to survive.
So for example, a handful of people already infected with your virus survive an outbreak of another disease, "Killingus Allofus" that is spreading fast and heretofore, 100% lethal. You can catch the "Uglification" virus by shaking hands with an infected person$^1$. In fact, Killingus Allofus takes three weeks to kill you, and if you catch Uglification in the first week you can still survive.
Uglification will spread, intentionally, like wildfire.
1 edit: In keeping with the OP's intent; it would be harder to contract Uglification; say you have to cut yourself and rub infected saliva in the open wound.
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