It's a Sunday evening at Carmichael and a group of girlfriends hovers around a bowl of cookies-and-cream ice cream. Dipping and double-dipping their spoons into the bowl, the friends chat without even considering that they may be putting themselves at risk. Though this may be a common occurrence between friends on a college campus, it is a scene that would make a hypochondriac's heart rate spike.
Such a spike would not be without reason. Approximately 95 percent of adults in the United States have been infected with the Epstein-Barr virus, a highly contagious herpes virus that causes mononucleosis (mono), which can be spread via saliva, by the age of 40.
Many people who become infected never develop symptoms of infectious mono and, since the disease is not usually linked to serious long-term illness, it is often treated lightly in the medical community. But as rates continue to increase, questions have arisen as to whether more intense research should go into finding a cure or vaccine for mono.
College students get hit hardest and most frequently by the virus, as spreading saliva is often more common in college than it is later in life.
"There tends to be a lot of sharing and caring going on in college," sophomore Patricia Pop said.
Despite its commonality, mono can have a grave effect on a student's academics, extracurriculars and social lives, as was the case with sophomore Trevor Stack.
Last November, Stack, a diver for the Tufts swim team, came down with what he thought was just a cold. The virus turned out to be mono and kept him out of the pool for the remainder of the semester.
"For two weeks it just felt like a cold, so I was still training for a while. But when I went to the doctor they told me I had to stop because of an enlarged spleen," Stack said.
Sophomore David Meyer, who is also a member of the swim team, thinks that athletes may be more prone to illness in general.
"It makes sense [for mono to be common amongst athletes]. If you're working out, your immune system is down, and you're more vulnerable to those kinds of things," he said.
Stack's enlarged spleen was only one of the symptoms of mono. Others include fever, fatigue, sore throat and swollen glands.
Despite the growing numbers of young people becoming infected with mono, there is still no vaccine or antiviral drug that can ward off Epstein-Barr virus or treat the resulting infection. For the majority, bed rest and a lot of fluids is all they have to look forward to.
"I mainly just slept," Stack said. "The time when it was really bad was during finals last year. I didn't have classes, but it was tough getting through my exams."
Furthermore, the virus can affect those around the patient. Sophomore Jessica Oh recalls the long month in which her roommate and friend was hit with a serious case of mono.
"I was more concerned because she was sleeping a lot more and I had some trouble adjusting to her sleeping habits. I had to handle [our rooming situation] more delicately than you would if she wasn't sick."
When asked if they were concerned about catching the illness, reactions were mixed, but several students were not particularly concerned. "Not at all," Pop said. "When you make out with a random kid at a party, you don't go, 'wait, do you have mono?' It's their responsibility to know when they can and can't [kiss]."
Sophomore Emma Albright, however, takes the disease more seriously. "If I get a sore throat, my first reaction is probably that I have strep throat, but my second thought is ... I probably have mono," she said. "I'm kind of a hypochondriac."
Sophomore Morgan Cesa feels that although mono is a great inconvenience, it should not be an especially great concern. "When someone close to me has it, I do think about it," Cesa said. "Among the illnesses that you can catch, it seems one of the worst because you have it for such a long time, but in the grander scheme of things mono doesn't seem that bad," she said.
Stack has no idea where or from whom he may have gotten the infection. But despite his misfortune, he does not look back with particularly ill feelings. "It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. I guess I had a light case. I tend to have a strong immune system."
