Thursday, November 22, 2007

EBV

Coming to the 3rd day of my fever.... My neck is all swollen due to the virus infection.. My head feels like exploding and my throat feels like being cut by knife each time I swallow.... The doc says this might last for another 1-2 weeks......

Some information I got about the virus from the internet:


Infectious mononucleosis, (also known as the kissing disease, or Pfeiffer's disease, in North America as mono and more commonly known as glandular fever in other English-speaking countries) is seen most commonly in adolescents and young adults, characterized in teenagers by fever, sore throat, muscle soreness, and fatigue. Around 90% of people will acquire the virus even if they exhibit no symptoms. Mononucleosis typically produces a very mild illness in small children, but is typically asymptomatic. Mononucleosis is usually caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which infects B cells (B-lymphocytes), producing a reactive lymphocytosis and atypical T cells (T-lymphocytes) known as Downey bodies.
Mononucleosis is typically transmitted from asymptomatic individuals through saliva (hence "the kissing disease"), or by sharing a drink, or sharing eating utensils. It may also be transmitted through blood. The disease is far less contagious than is commonly thought. Mono is not spread through the air. You can live in the same house with a person and never acquire the virus. In rare cases a person may have a high resistance to infection.[citation needed] The disease is so-named because the count of mononuclear leukocytes (white blood cells with a one-lobed nucleus) rises significantly. There are two main types of mononuclear leukocytes: monocytes and lymphocytes. They normally account for about 35% of all white blood cells. With infectious mononucleosis, this can rise to 50-70%. Also, the total white blood count may increase to 10,000-20,000 per cubic millimeter.

Symptoms
Symptoms usually appear 1-2 months after infection, and may resemble strep throat, or other bacterial or viral respiratory infections. The typical symptoms and signs of mononucleosis are:
Fever—this varies from mild to severe, but is seen in nearly all cases.
Tender and enlarged/swollen lymph nodes—particularly the posterior cervical lymph nodes, on both sides of the neck.
Sore throat—White patches on the tonsils and back of the throat are often seen
Fatigue (sometimes extreme fatigue)
Some patients also display:
Enlarged spleen (splenomegaly, which may lead to rupture) and/or liver (hepatomegaly)
Petechial hemorrhage
Abdominal pain - a possible symptom of a potentially fatal rupture of the spleen.[1]
Aching muscles
Headache
Loss of appetite
Depression
Weakness
Skin rash
Dizziness or disorientation
Uncontrolled shaking at times
Dry cough
Supra-orbital oedema—the eyes become puffy and swollen—may occur in the early stages of infection
After an initial prodrome of 1-2 weeks, the fatigue of infectious mononucleosis often lasts from 1-2 months. The virus can remain dormant in the B cells indefinitely after symptoms have disappeared, and resurface at a later date. Many people exposed to the Epstein-Barr virus do not show symptoms of the disease, but carry the virus. This is especially true in children, in whom infection seldom causes more than a very mild cold which often goes undiagnosed. Children are typically just carriers of the disease. This feature, along with mono's long (4 to 6 week) incubation period, makes epidemiological control of the disease impractical. About 6% of people who have had infectious mononucleosis will relapse.
Mononucleosis can cause the spleen to swell. Rupture may occur without trauma, but impact to the spleen is also a factor. Other complications include hepatitis (inflammation of the liver) causing elevation of serum bilirubin (in approximately 40% of patients), jaundice (approximately 5% of cases), and anemia (a deficiency of red blood cells). In rare cases, death may result from severe hepatitis or splenic rupture.
Usually, the longer the infected person experiences the symptoms the more the infection weakens the person's immune system and the longer he/she will need to recover. Cyclical reactivation of the virus, although rare in healthy people, is often a sign of immunological abnormalities in the small subset of organic disease patients in which the virus is active or reactivated.
Although all cases of mononucleosis are caused by the E.B. virus, cytomegalovirus can produce a similar illness, usually with less throat pain. Due to the presence of the atypical lymphocytes on the blood smear in both conditions, some physicians confusingly used to include both infections under the diagnosis of "mononucleosis," though EBV is by definition the infection that must be present for this illness. Symptoms similar to those of mononucleosis can be caused by adenovirus, acute HIV infection and the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii

1 Comments:

At 4:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

just finished reading ur entire blog (2005-2007)... firstly, i'm glad tat u had made it in ur career. congrats...
hmm... u are still the same old person, as capable and as emotional. althought i feel that u had make it through the hard times of moving on, still need to tell u this: memories are for u to keep, not for u to leave in it. hope that u wun carry on 自暴自弃... at the end of the day, before u get urself a wife and build ur own family, ur parents especially ur mum, are ur priority in life. be responsible to urself and them. live to the fullest for urself and them... take care and hope u recover soon.
stop drinking so aggressively and stop taking too much panadol. those things bring u nothing but harm ur body.

 

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