Beware the Cooties!

I thought we had left “cooties” behind in elementary school, but they’re making a repeat appearance nearly 15 years later in college!

 

Photo by Ed Uthman.

But, of course, these cooties are none other than the “kissing virus,” Mono, itself. And Epstein-Barr Virus or EBV, the tiny tyrant behind Mononucleosis, is astoundingly widespread. According to the CDC, nearly everyone has a run in with EBV at some point in their lives. In fact, 85% of 40-year-old United States residents have already been infected with EBV. It just happens to be that EBV infection in childhood is frequently asymptomatic. In other words, this infection might have snuck past us in childhood.

When it comes to our friendly, neighborhood rhinoviruses, it turns out that you can never suffer through the same cold twice! Our immune system learns from its mistakes; if it has already had to fight a specific microbe before, it keeps a few antibodies hanging around so that it can effortlessly spot and eradicate a repeat offender even several decades later. Talk about an impressive memory! But for EBV it is quite the opposite; you never seem to quite get rid of it.

EBV is a herpesvirus, a family notorious for viral latency. When EBV becomes latent, it just fundamentally comes to be that mooching roommate that seems to be constantly asleep. If you don’t take a close enough look, you might miss it! In latency, the virus slips an entire copy of its blueprints into the DNA of one of our cells but keeps itself under such tight lock and key that no more than a few viral proteins can be produced, not to mention an entire viral particle! But EBV can only stay under the radar behind enemy lines for so long; instead, it often rebounds and comes to be an active virus again! This latency might sound nearly identical to lysogeny in bacteriophages, and while it is quite similar, latency in mammalian viruses is much more rare, with herpesviruses and retroviruses being the only two substantial cliques of peek-a-boo fanatics among them.

EBV is spread effortlessly via bodily fluids including blood and saliva, hence its “kissing virus” moniker. But EBV can be acquired just as easily by sharing toothbrushes, utensils, food, or drinks! When EBV is latent, virus is not being churned out by our resident cellular virus factories to any detectable extent, and consequently a carrier of latent EBV (that is: most of us) is unable to spread the virus. But EBV is quite the surprise-party enthusiast, and if reactivated decades later, can begin to be spread yet again, even though our handy-dandy immune systems’ “second time is the charm” mentality keeps us from having outward symptoms.

Plus, symptoms of Mononucleosis vary drastically, but also typically include fatigue, sore throat, and swollen lymph nodes. Some symptoms can keep an individual bedridden for several weeks, but others might not trigger any perceptible symptoms. And even though most Mono cases persist for 2-4 weeks, others can take up to 6 months.

But keep yourself safe and healthy, by keeping your toothbrush and your fork to yourself and  the smooching to uninfected persons!