Has anyone heard that once you have mono and it clears up. That it can.......?!
Question:
Has anyone heard that once you have mono and it clears up. That it can.......?
be contagious to other people? My daughter has mono last year. Now her boyfriend has it. His Dr. told him he caught it from my daughter. Has anyone else had this kind of experience? I've never heard of it.
Answers:
Yes, it is possible. Mono is caused by the Epstein-Barr Virus. The symptoms of infectious mono usually resolve in 1 or 2 months, but the virus remains dormant/latent in a few cells in the throat and blood for the rest of the person's life. (e.g. this is similar to the herpes virus, that causes cold sores on a persons lips The virus get reactivated occationally and causes the sores, due to stress etc.). Periodically, the virus can reactivate and is commonly found in the saliva of infected persons. This reactivation usually occurs without symptoms of illness or only symptomes that are similar to a common cold. Thus, many healthy people can carry and spread the virus intermittently for life. These people are usually the primary reservoir for person-to-person transmission (after all most people do not kiss other people when they are seriously sick). For this reason, transmission of the virus is almost impossible to prevent.
The virus also establishes a lifelong dormant infection in some cells of the body's immune system.
Most individuals exposed to people with infectious mononucleosis have previously been infected with the virus so they do not get sick and are not at risk for infectious mononucleosis. (the CDC estimates that 95% of adults in the US between 35 and 40 years of age have been infected previously - not all people that get infected for the first time get diagnosed properly. Often people just assume they have the flu or a bad cold.
The most common age to observe infectious mono in the US is teens and early 20's. Why? Because, the teen have not been previously infected, so they are not immune and transmission of EBV requires intimate contact with the saliva of an infected person, e.g. kissing. So one teens start to date they provide a good place for the virus to thrive.