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Separation of Immune Cell Subpopulations in Peripheral Blood Samples from Children with Infectious Mononucleosis
Published on: September 7, 2022
Long-term shedding of infectious epstein-barr virus after infectious mononucleosis
Samira Fafi-Kremer1, Patrice Morand, Jean-Paul Brion
1Laboratoire de Virologie Moléculaire et Structurale, EA 2939, Universite Joseph Fourier, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA loads in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), plasma, and saliva, as well as infectivity of the virus in saliva, were evaluated in 20 patients for 6 months after the onset of infectious mononucleosis (IM). All patients displayed sustained high EBV DNA loads in the saliva, associated with a persistent infectivity of saliva at day 180. EBV DNA load in PBMCs decreased significantly from day 0 to day 180 (in spite of a viral rebound between day 30 and day 90 in 90% of the patients), and EBV DNA rapidly disappeared from plasma. These data show that patients with IM remain highly infectious during convalescence.
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