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Once You Get Mono Can You Get It Again

  • Most people will not be able to go mono twice in their life.
  • That's because once you lot're infected with the virus that causes mono, information technology remains inactive in your body.
  • However, those who are immunocompromised may be at a higher hazard for the virus reactivating, and experiencing mono symptoms more than than once.
  • This commodity was medically reviewed by Kristine Arthur, MD, an internist at MemorialCare Medical Group in Laguna Wood, CA.
  • Visit Insider'south Health Reference library for more advice.

Infectious mononucleosis, or mono for short, is spread past the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), a member of the herpes family unit, through saliva or respiratory droplets.

More than ninety% of people worldwide are infected with EBV. The virus will remain inactive for many of these people, and they'll never have any symptoms of mono.

However, at least 25% of young people who get infected with EBV will develop symptoms of mono, according to the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention (CDC). But there's some good news — if y'all get mono, it's almost impossible to become it once more. Here's why.

Can you become mono twice?

One time you've had mono, it's extremely unlikely that you'll go it again months or fifty-fifty years subsequently.

When you've been infected with EBV, it remains in your pharynx and blood cells for the rest of your life — but is normally latent, or inactive. Your immune system produces antibodies in your claret that assist protect y'all against a recurrence of EBV.

"This will give you permanent immunity from catching the virus again," says Dimitar Marinov, MD, an assistant professor in the section of hygiene and epidemiology at Medical University in Varna, Bulgaria. "That's the reason why you cannot become mononucleosis twice."

However, EBV may periodically reactivate in your body, leading to higher levels of the virus in your saliva. Fifty-fifty if EBV does reactivate, there are usually no symptoms of mono in otherwise healthy people, Marinov says.

However, y'all could possibly still spread EBV to others, regardless of how long it's been since you were first infected, the CDC notes. That's why mono can be contagious long after y'all've displayed symptoms.

People with weak immune systems are more than likely to get mono twice

However, if you take a weakened or suppressed immune organization, besides known as being immunocompromised, then you're more at risk of getting mono more than in one case. If you lot have the following conditions, yous are more likely to show symptoms of mono if EBV reactivates.

  • People with autoimmune diseases such every bit lupus, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis
  • People taking immunosuppressant medications, such as corticosteroids similar prednisone, to treat autoimmune diseases
  • Cancer patients
  • People with AIDS

Although it is unclear what tin trigger a reactivation of EBV, it may be due to an activation of B cells — a type of white blood cells in your allowed arrangement — in response to an unrelated infection.

EBV invades your B cells and makes your body produce an excessive number of lymphocytes, the round white blood cells in your lymph tissues, and produce fewer neutrophils, the white claret cells that boost your immune system's ability to fight infection.

EBV-invaded B cells may proliferate more in people with weakened immune systems. This makes them more probable than people with healthy immune systems to have severe symptoms caused past EBV.

In very rare cases, an EBV infection may develop into chronic agile EBV (CAEBV). Instead of going fallow, EBV remains active and tin lead to serious complications such as a weakened immune system, lymphomas, or organ failure. The but current cure for CAEBV is hematopoietic (blood cells) stem cell transplantation.

People from Asia, S and Cardinal America, and United mexican states are more at run a risk for CAEBV, and it'due south more often than not acquired by genetic factors. "In that location are people with genetic variations in their allowed cells who are more than susceptible to a CAEBV infection," Marinov says.

Other common illnesses that you might mistake for mono

It'due south rare that you'll actually become mono twice. So, if you've already had mono one time, and you call up you're getting information technology again, it's more likely that you actually have another disease with similar symptoms, such as strep throat or flu.

Mono symptoms commonly brainstorm 4 to half dozen weeks after y'all've been infected with EBV. The symptoms typically last from two to half dozen or more weeks, which is much longer than they ordinarily terminal for other viral infections.

Strep throat and influenza may resemble mono.
Yuqing Liu/Insider

Unlike mono, the common influenza is acquired past an flu virus that can be transmitted not but through saliva, but through the air and by touching contaminated objects.

Influenza symptoms usually begin suddenly, soon afterward you go infected, rather than over fourth dimension as they do with mono. The flu typically lasts from a week to 10 days.

And while mono and the flu are caused past viruses, strep throat is caused by grouping A Streptococcus bacteria, so it tin can exist treated with antibiotics and will ordinarily last less than one calendar week.

The lesser line

If you've already had mono, and retrieve you may have it again, check with your doctor, who tin decide if that's the case — or if you only have another common illness, similar strep pharynx or influenza.

However, in some cases, serious conditions can besides display symptoms like to mono. This includes hepatitis B, a virus that causes inflammation of the liver and has additional symptoms besides those for mono, such equally nighttime urine and yellowing of your skin. You should see a medico correct away if you have these symptoms.

Related articles from Health Reference:

  • How to treat mono and the best means to relieve your symptoms
  • How to tell if you accept a fever without a thermometer
  • 5 ways to soothe a sore pharynx

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Source: https://www.insider.com/can-you-get-mono-twice

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