Mononucleosis

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been well studied, report that they see most patients in the fall and early spring. Epidemics do not occur, but doctors have reported clustering of cases. Transmission: EBV, the virus that causes most cases of , infects and reproduces in the salivary glands. It also infects white blood cells called B cells. Direct contact with virus-infected saliva, such as through kissing, can transmit the virus and result in . Someone with , however, does not need to be isolated. Household members or college roommates have only a slight risk of being infected unless they come into direct contact with the patient's saliva. A person is infectious several days before symptoms appear and for some time after acute infection. No one knows how long this period of infectiousness lasts, although the virus can be found routinely in the saliva of most people with for at least six months after the acute infection has subsided. It can be detected in the saliva of about 15 percent of people for years after ...

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is present. In young children and older adults (more than 35 years old), may be difficult to diagnose because the typical symptoms are not present. A doctor may suspect in older adults, however, if the patient has had a high fever for at least a week, has an enlarged liver, has abnormal liver function studies, or has neurological symptoms. In children, EBV infection can produce a different picture. A child may have a mild sore throat or tonsillitis or have no symptoms at all, and the illness often goes unrecognized by the parent or teacher. Diagnosis: As symptoms appear, the body reacts to the virus in certain distinctive ways that can be detected through laboratory tests. White blood ...

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