Primary Epstein-Barr virus infection in a renal transplant recipient

A young girl with familial nephronophthisis and chronic renal failure contracted a primary Epstein-Barr virus infection after renal transplantation. During the illness she developed a clinical picture of fever and pneumonitis which closely resembled the posttransplantation syndrome usually associated with cytomegalovirus, although she had no evidence of cytomegalovirus infection. A younger sibling with the same renal disease was found retrospectively to have apparently had an earlier subclinical Epstein-Barr virus infection.