Epidemiology of whistling glandular fever

Worldwide, about 95% of adults are infected with EBV. The infection usually occurs in childhood and usually proceeds without symptoms or as a mild inflammation of the pharyngitis. After the first infection, lifelong immunity remains, which protects the body against the virus.

Pfeiffer’s glandular fever occurs in 75% of cases in young adults between 17 and 25 years of age, but after the age of 40 it is extremely rare. The transmission occurs through droplet infection, more precisely through intensive contact with infectious oral saliva, especially when kissing (“kissing disease”), but probably also when drinking from the same bottle. First the tissue of the mouth, throat and salivary glands is affected, where the virus multiplies and, as a result, is colonized by a group of white blood cells (B lymphocytes). Some of these infected B-lymphocytes are not captured by the immune system and reach a latent state where they serve as a repository for the virus and are thus involved in the reactivation and new infections of epithelial cells.

Is whistling glandular fever contagious?

Pfeiffer’s glandular fever is a highly contagious disease. The virus causing this infection is the Epstein-Barr virus. This virus can be transmitted in many different ways.

The most common transmission is by mouth-to-mouth contact via saliva. This is why the disease is popularly known as the “kissing disease”. However, its spread as a droplet, contact or smear infection is also conceivable.

Up to the age of 30, it is estimated that about 95% of the European population are carriers of this virus. Many of them never had the distinct clinical picture of the whistling glandular fever or the infection was confused with a banal flu-like infection. However, antibodies against this virus have already been formed in their blood, so that a renewed infection is rather unlikely.

They have a lifelong immunity against this virus. So you yourself are not at risk of infection, but can – without noticing it – become contagious again when the virus particles remaining in your body become active again. Consequently, it is true for ill persons who show symptoms of mononucleosis that they are contagious for the duration of the illness. Although the risk of infection decreases significantly as the symptoms subside, it cannot be completely ruled out.