Kids and Health Care: Mononucleosis
When your child reaches his or her teens, different kinds of communicable illnesses can become concerns. One example: Infectious mononucleosis.
Mononucleosis is an illness caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a member of the herpes virus family. Similar symptoms and illness are sometimes caused by cytomegalovirus, which is also a member of this family of viruses. EBV is transmitted through the saliva. Young children can be infected from the saliva of playmates or family members. Adolescents with the virus can spread EBV through kissing (hence its once popular name, "the kissing disease").
Blood tests usually show an increase in the overall number of white blood cells. Blood can also be examined under a microscope to determine whether there is an increased number of particular white blood cells called lymphocytes. These white blood cells help fight viral infections, and an increased number of "atypical" lymphocytes usually indicates current infection with mononucleosis.
Studies show that most people have been infected with EBV at some point in their lives, and most have few or no symptoms of viral infection.
When people think of "mono," they often think of extreme exhaustion as one of the major symptoms. Other typical symptoms of infectious mononucleosis in older children include:
- fever;
- sore throat;
- enlargement of lymph nodes (in the neck, armpit and throat);
- sore muscles; and
- enlarged spleen (located under the rib cage on the left side and functioning as a blood filter and antibody producer).
Loss of appetite and generalized weakness also may be present, especially in adolescents. Nausea, hepatitis, jaundice, severe headache, stiffness, chest pain and difficulty breathing can occur in some cases. A pink rash can occur all over the body in children who have been treated with certain antibiotics.
Younger children may have few or none of these symptoms; instead they may have nonspecific symptoms like fever, slight malaise and loss of appetite. Adolescents are more likely to exhibit the classic symptoms. Some may experience extreme fatigue, staying in bed for more than a week because they feel too weak even to walk around the house.
Some pediatricians will prescribe antibiotics to counter the Epstein-Barr virus. But infectious mononucleosis is generally a self-limiting disease, which means it goes away on its own in most cases.
