The Kissing Disease – Mononucleosis

27.01.2011 | By: T. P.

When kissing passionately, we exchange a lot of saliva and sometimes a virus as well, such as mononucleosis.

Mononucleosis is not only transmitted by kissing. (Photoxpress)

What is mononucleosis?

Mononucleosis is another virus disease caused by herpes viruses, that is, the Epstein-Barr virus. The reason for the name is that it generally spreads through saliva. Mononucleosis is most common in the teenage years and youth. Mononucleosis may lay dormant for a longer period of time and it develops when the immune system of the body is weak. This usually happens due to the overtired body, difficult practice or stress.

Treatment of mononucleosis

Mononucleosis cannot be treated. We have to go through it. The symptoms of mononucleosis are headache, fever, sore and painful throat, enlarged lymph nodes and sometimes skin rashes. The main symptom is fatigue, which makes the body completely numb and appears prior to the above symptoms. We experience lack of appetite, we feel pains in joints, and the liver and spleen become enlarged. The only way of treatment is rest. Mononucleosis lasts from one week to several months and during that time we have to eat appropriate food and rest. The body itself shows us when mononucleosis is gone. Antibiotics do not help as the infection is caused by virus, and if due to your tired body you get a bacteriological infection, a physician will prescribe you appropriate medications.
Mononucleosis is not only transmitted by kissing. Drinking from the same glass and using the same toothbrush or cutlery can cause infection as well, although it happens quite rarely.

Symptoms of mononucleosis

If you therefore feel that you are very tired, or under stress, or under a great deal of physical strain, depression is not always the first diagnose for the fatigue. As soon as you feel painful throat, visit a physician who will make the right diagnosis on the basis of blood tests from a laboratory. Complications are not common and mortality is zero. We remain the carriers of the virus for months after the treatment of symptoms, but the stage of infection falls dramatically. The virus stays in us for the rest of our lives, however, the disease rarely reappears.