Mononucleosis. What is it and how dangerous is the disease?

Viral acute disease, accompanied by damage to the oral cavity, throat, fever, affecting the lymph nodes, and often the liver and spleen, is called mononucleosis. What is it and what is it caused by?

The main causative agent of this disease is the Epstein-Barr virus. It contains DNA, has tropism (the reaction of orientation of cells, the direction of their growth or movement) to B-lymphocytes, the etiological role plays in the development of lymphoma of Berkit, some lymphomas in people with weakened immunity, nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The virus is able for a long time to persist (stay) in cells as a latent infection. Its antigenic components have much in common with other herpes viruses . Isolated from patients with mononucleosis of different clinical forms, the strains of the virus have no significant differences.

Ordinary angina - most often it is confused with mononucleosis. What is this - the same or only diseases with similar symptoms? How can you distinguish between these diseases? Their similarity is always manifested in the general reactions of the human body: the temperature rises, fever and other symptoms occur. After all, infectious diseases are diseases caused and maintained by the presence of an agent in the body - a foreign agent. They are very dynamic, the symptomatic pattern can change rapidly. Therefore, in order to distinguish mononucleosis from sore throat, it is important to establish the correct diagnosis, undergo all necessary studies, which will allow selecting a competent treatment algorithm. Angina can occur as an independent disease or be a manifestation of another ailment. Infectious mononucleosis is characterized not only by the inflammatory process in the throat, but also by a significant increase in lymph nodes, liver, spleen, marked changes in the leukocyte blood count.

It is the increased number of white blood cells that characterizes mononucleosis. What is it and how dangerous is this disease? Its synonyms are also the terms "Pfeifer's disease", "glandular fever", "monocytic angina", "benign lymphoblastosis", "Filatov's disease" and others. Most often, mononucleosis occurs between the ages of 14 and 17, it is often called the illness of students. Most often, the virus is transmitted by airborne droplets, infectious also all items of everyday use of the patient.

Untimely detection and illiterate treatment can lead to serious complications, so if mononucleosis is suspected, a monospot test is required to identify the main pathogen. This blood test allows excluding other diseases similar to mononucleosis in terms of symptoms (lymphocytic leukemia, diphtheria of the oropharynx, pseudotuberculosis, viral hepatitis, chlamydial pneumonia, rubella, toxoplasmosis, adenovirus infection).

There is no uniform classification of the forms of clinical manifestation of infectious mononucleosis. But you should know that in addition to the typical forms of the disease, atypical ones can also appear. The latter may be characterized by the absence of one of the main symptoms of the disease (lymphadenopathy, tonsillitis, enlargement of the liver and spleen), the predominance and severity of one of its manifestations (necrotizing tonsillitis, exanthema), the appearance of unusual symptoms (the appearance of jaundice) or other manifestations attributed to Complications.

Long-term presence in the body of the virus leads to the development of a chronic form of the disease. It can be identified only by conducting a series of analyzes of tissue samples for histology. The difficulty lies in the inconstancy of the symptomatic picture, more or less characterizing mononucleosis. What is this - the chronic type of the disease, and how can it be expressed? It can be permanent weakness, swollen lymph nodes, severe drowsiness, sore throat, aches in joints, frequent colds. There may be fluctuations in body temperature, sudden nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, various types of pharyngitis, pneumonia. The spleen and liver noticeably increase, the appearance of oral and even genital herpes is characteristic.

Similarity with all kinds of infectious diseases makes it very difficult to establish a correct diagnosis. The danger of chronic mononucleosis is a greatly weakened immunity, as the risk of other infections, various complications (edema of the pharynx, spleen rupture and others) increases. With this form of the disease, it is necessary to define the criteria that make it possible to identify the mononucleosis and to conduct the correct course of treatment.

It should be noted that there is a high stability of antibodies in people who have undergone mononucleosis. What it is And how is it expressed? In most cases, immunity is produced to the virus. But he continues to remain in the human body, able to periodically activate and transmit to other people.