Abstract
The incidence and rise of the EBV antibodies were measured by indirect immunofluorescence in 1033 sera from a group of 175 pediatric and older cases of infectious mononucleosis and from 344 family and social contacts. Cases of infectious mononucleosis with eleven exceptions were EBV seropositive in acute and/or convalescent sera. A rise in EBV antibodies of two dilutions or more was demonstrated in 23 of the 175 cases. The EBV antibody titres of mononucleosis sera were significantly higher than those of contanct's sera (P <p 0.01). The incidence of these antibodies in contacts reached 35 to 67% in four different age groups. A seroconversion was demonstrated in only 9 of 110 EBV negative family contacts and a significant antibody rise encountered in only 6 additional contacts giving an attack rate of less than 15%. Interinfection or interdisease periods varied from 1 week to 2 years. The infectivity of the EB virus and its horizontal trnasmission seem to be as low in nature as they appear to be experimentally in the laboratory. The epidemiological behaviour of the EB virus infection suggests that its relationship to infectious mononucleosis may be analogous to that of the V-Z virus to zoster.
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Joncas, J., Ducharme, J. The EB virus infection within families of cases of infectious mononucleosis. Pediatr Res 5, 405 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197108000-00143
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197108000-00143