The Silent Virus Behind Mono Is Now a Prime Suspect in Major Diseases
Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever, was once dismissed as a rite of passage. Scientists now link it to cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Illustration: Maggie Cowles for Bloomberg
Jeff Cohen was 17 and living in Baltimore when mononucleosis knocked him off his feet. He thinks he got it from his high school girlfriend — now his wife — who once he got sick would ring the doorbell, drop off his homework and run away before he could get to the door. “She was afraid I might give her something,” said Cohen, who was laid low for a week with a fever, sore throat and swollen glands. “I’m certain it actually came from her.”
That teenage case of mono, also known as glandular fever, would make a lasting impression. Five decades later, Cohen is now chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases inside the National Institutes of Health, where he’s leading efforts to create a vaccine for Epstein-Barr virus, or EBV, which causes mono.