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Kissing Disease - Epstein Barr Virus or Something Else?

Kissing Disease - Epstein Barr Virus or Something Else?

Written by Daniel Roytas (MHSc Human Nutrition), BHSc (Naturopathy), Dip. RM

Glandular fever (also known as the kissing disease), was first described by Emil Pfeiffer in 1889. Pfeiffer classified glandular fever as an infectious disease that resulted in fever, swelling of the lymph nodes and organ enlargement of the liver or spleen1. The term “infectious mononucleosis” was first coined by Sprunt and Evans in the 1920’s to further describe glandular fever, after discovering a group of students with a similar illness including elevated lymphocytes, atypical mononuclear cells and pharyngitis1,2. In the 1960’s, a herpes-type "virus" was discovered in cell lines of Burkitt’s lymphomas, leukemic tissue and specimen samples taken from healthy donors3. It wasn’t until 1968 that Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) was said to be cause of glandular fever, after antibodies to that same herpes-type "virus" were found...

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