Infectious Mononucleosis in Children – Current Clinical and Epidemiological Aspects

Abstract

Infectious mononucleosis is caused by primary infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, most commonly symptomatic in teenagers and young adults. A positive diagnosis of infectious mononucleosis is based on clinical manifestations, changes in WBC counts, and serum-specific serological tests. We performed a retrospective study of some clinical and epidemiological aspects of infectious mononucleosis in children hospitalized at Clinical Infectious Diseases Hospital Brasov from January 2015 – June 2016. There were hospitalized more boys (72,31% cases), and more from urban areas (66,15% cases), each month, without an obvious seasonality. The most frequent hematological changes were monocytosis (95,38% cases) and lymphocytosis (89,23% cases). Hepatitis was frequently (75,38%), rarely associated with hepatomegaly and jaundice. A large number of children had a concomitant acute infection or recent infection with CMV (37,2% cases).