Is there a HCP who can answer a quick question about glandular fever?

[phdlife]

Two people in the past week have said to me that it lingers and can still be making patient feel crappy up to six months after the acute infection - is that true?

I'm not a HCP but I had GF at 27- and I felt ill for months. I went back to work far too soon-teaching- only a month off sick- and it took me 6-9 months to feel better again. I felt exhausted every night.

Again, not an HCP, but I went down with GF in August and picked up the threads of my life again (school and social activities) the following February.

That was in 1972/3. I now know that my health never actually recovered completely from that illness, so in one sense I have never shaken it off, and it is almost certainly the root cause of adrenal and thyroid problems that have only been treated in the last two years.

D

Yes it can

Yes it's true. Epstein Barr virus (causative agent of glandular fever) can lurk around in the body for ages. It was one of the suggested agents for ME, CFS and PVS but hasn't really stacked up for those.
More than 6 months, by the way - can be years, as people on here are showing by their own experience.

this may help explain but depends on how much science background you have.
What it boils down to though is that the EBV can hide in your own immune cells (B cells produce antibodies) and escape detection. Clever, huh.

thanks very much. I had it myself at 19 but it was so long ago, I was so ill, and there was so much other bad shit going on in my life that I've got no real memory of it except that I know I pretty much missed an entire semester of uni.

my ds had it quite badly last october and I remember the main symptom, apart from his glands, was that he never wanted to go anywhere. He seemed recovered over christmas and the long holiday but now he has started at a new kindy and doesn't want to go, even though he likes it. Dreadful scenes. And yesterday he didn't want to go to the park - more dreadful scenes - my fault as I didn't realise what the issue was. :(

When I had it I slept constantly and lay around much of the rest of the time but mostly ds doesn't seem ill at all, he's perky and playful. Just exceedingly short-tempered (and the amount of energy one of his meltdowns takes - !!), cannot cope at all without his naps, doesn't want to go anywhere. It's only the force with which he doesn't want to go out that made me wonder if he might still be feeling vaguely unwell. I'd better talk to the kindy teacher...

Sounds like he's still suffering. Like other posters, I had it years ago and it took 6 months to even feel normal-ish and years for the flare-ups to go.

I too had it late teens, it was a nightmare. Didn't clear my system for a bout a year.
I do still wonder about the general level of ailments I suffer and whether they are connected,

The thing is all the info I've seen says the vast majority of kids' cases go undetected because they don't get anywhere near as sick as adults. But ds's acute infection was pretty bad by little kid standards and thumbwitch's link might explain it (thanks, thumbwitch :) )

the other thing is, he's seemed to be much better over the break. But maybe that was because there wasn't too much pressure/activity, rather than because he was actually better iygwim.