Duration of sick leave

How long the patient is put on sick leave depends mainly on the treating doctor and the patient’s wishes. As already mentioned, the Pfeiffer’s glandular fever does not cause a complete defeat so that one feels unable to work physically. Rather, those affected feel a sense of listlessness that lasts for several weeks.

Patients often only come to the doctor after several weeks of persistent exhaustion. If the doctor makes the correct diagnosis, the sick leave can last for two weeks. If the doctor does not recognise the illness and only suspects stress-related exhaustion, the sick note will only include a few days at most to give the patient time to cope with stress. However, these days are not sufficient to cure the long-drawn-out illness. It usually takes several weeks for the patient to recover from the illness and be fully fit for work again.

Duration until reactivation

It is not possible to make a general statement in this respect. The underlying pathogens – Epstein-Barr viruses – remain in certain body cells in a similar way to herpes viruses. There they wait until the immune system is weakened, be it by stress, another disease or the like, and then cause the symptoms of the disease to reappear by starting to multiply again.

Often, however, these are so weak that the affected person does not notice them. It can be worse, however, with the “chronic form” of the Pfeiffer’s glandular fever. The affected persons then suffer permanently from a feeling of weakness. Ultimately, the duration until reactivation varies completely from person to person.

Duration of the chronic form

By and large, the “duration” of the chronic form often depends on when it is diagnosed as the causative disease of long-term fatigue. The symptoms of the chronic form of whistling glandular fever can be very diverse. In most cases, blood tests for specific antibodies provide clarity, as the level of the Epstein-Barr virus is clearly elevated. However, months or even years can pass until this time. Often the Epstein-Barr virus is not considered by many doctors, which is why it could be responsible for more diseases than is widely believed.

Duration with child

It is extremely difficult to make a statement about the duration of the illness in the child. At this age (at least in young childhood) the course of the disease is still very unimpressive. The disease usually presents itself here only with a sore throat and slight fever, which subsides after a few days.

There are only few reports of a persistent fatigue or similar symptoms in young children. Pfeiffer’s glandular fever typically occurs in adolescence, where the full duration of the disease can last several weeks. The older the child, the longer the symptoms are present.