Publications by authors named "Beth D Mullan"
Prospective studies of infectious mononucleosis in university students.
Clin Transl Immunology
August 2016
We performed an intensive prospective study designed to obtain as much data as possible on the incubation and early illness periods of primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection. Undergraduate students who lacked EBV antibody and oral EBV DNA (EBV-naive) were seen every 2 weeks during their freshman year. Clinical and behavioral data, oral washes and venous blood were obtained.
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- - University students were monitored over three years to understand how common primary Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infections are and what factors contribute to them.
- - Out of 546 students screened, 143 uninfected students were tracked, revealing that 66 contracted EBV, most of whom (77%) developed infectious mononucleosis after engaging in high-risk behaviors like kissing.
- - The severity of the disease was linked to higher levels of EBV in the blood and an increase in specific immune cells (CD8(+) T-cells), indicating that both viral load and immune response play a role in how sick someone gets.
We postulated that quantitative monitoring of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) shedding after transplantation could distinguish EBV-associated illnesses and predict clinical outcome. EBV DNA was measured in solid organ (SOT) and hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT) using our own real-time TaqMan EBV PCR. The proportion of patients who had EBV DNAemia post-transplant was significantly lower in HCT vs.
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