Mononucleosis history and symptoms

Overview

Symptoms of infectious mononucleosis are fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands. Sometimes, a splenomegaly or hepatomegaly may develop. Heart problems or involvement of the central nervous system occurs only rarely, and infectious mononucleosis is almost never fatal.

There are no known associations between active EBV infection and problems during pregnancy, such as miscarriages or birth defects.

Although the symptoms of infectious mononucleosis usually resolve in 1 or 2 months, EBV remains dormant or latent in a few cells in the throat and blood for the rest of the person's life. Periodically, the virus can reactivate and is commonly found in the saliva of infected persons. This reactivation usually occurs without symptoms of illness.

Active EBV Infection: Symptoms

Asymptomatic:

• In small children, the course of the disease is frequently asymptomatic.
• Majority of adults infected with mono also remain asymptomatic with serological evidence of past infection.

Initial prodrome:

• Incubation period: 1-2 months

• Common symptoms include:

• Low-grade fever without chills is seen in nearly all cases
• Sore throat: white patches on the tonsils and back of the throat are often seen
• Muscle weakness and sometime extreme fatigue
• Tender lymphadenopathy, particularly the posterior cervical lymph nodes are involved

• Other symptoms that have been described in patients with EBV infection include:

• Unable to swallow due to enlarged tonsils
• Dry cough

• Loss of appetite
• Anorexia
• Nausea without vomiting
• Abdominal pain- a possible symptom of a potentially fatal rupture of the spleen.
• Diarrhea

• Uncommon symptoms include:

• Petechial hemorrhage
• Skin rash

• Headache
• Depression
• Dizziness or disorientation
• Uncontrolled shaking at times
• Myalgia (only in cases of severe high-grade fever)

Atypical rare presentations:

• Neurological involvement:

• Encephalitis,
• Aseptic meningitis
• Transverse myelitis
• Bell's palsy
• Guillain-Barré syndrome

• Cardiac involvement:

• Myocarditis

• Abdominal involvement:

• Pancreatitis,
• Acalculous cholecystitis,
• Mesenteric adenitis,
• Glomerulonephritis

Chronic EBV Infection: Symptoms

• The course of the disease can also be chronic presenting with chronic fatigue syndrome which is a variant of mononucleosis

• Symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome include:

• Fever,
• tiredness,
• Abnormal fatigue,
• Depression,
• Lethargy, and
• Chronic lymph node swelling,

• However, the above mentioned symptoms need to be present for months or years to be classified as chronic EBV syndrome or chronic fatigue syndrome.

• For more information, click here.

Related chapters

• Chronic fatigue syndrome history and symptoms

References

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