When I got hit with mono, I got hit very hard.

2 weeks bedridden. I still remember my Mom had to help me the few steps to the washroom, and I spent the majority of the time sleeping. Even 30 minutes out of bed was too painful and fatigue inducing to bear.

I know folks who've been the complete opposite though, just feeling 'unwell' for several months before being informed it was mono, etc.

Daisy is right, as far as I remember from statistics read. The vast majority of all people in America (can't speak for abroad, probably the same) have endured EBV, sometimes referred to as "mononucleosis". I had it in college, a typical place to get it. Later, it
was shown to have left a signature on a viral screen test.

Nevertheless it could be one of the triggers for MS, but most people fight it off and don't get MS from it. I remember I had a big boil on my neck from it, but when I got over it, it was gone for good.

And I had MS symptoms before I had EBV.

I hear you Mariel.

EBV has been tossed around for 3 decades now (or more) so I tend to believe it IS a virus that sets the disease off. Maybe it's not EBV, maybe it's not Rubella... nor Distemper, or any of the other viruses that they've targetted over the years, but I think from this and many similar articles, we'll eventually have to accede that a virus of some kind, is behind the trigger.

Maybe it is the EBV......maybe not, but it's good to know that all of these preceptors that we've heard about for decades now, are now being fully investigated.

I was tested for EBV about 10 years ago to see if I have had it in the past. It showed that I did indeed have it in the past, but it showed it was inactive at the time. The doctor said it was encapsulated, dormant.

It remains in the body for life, once exposed. I don't remember having Mono, but my doctor said some people just get a bad cold from it and don't realize it was not a cold virus but the EB virus.

Yes 95 percent of the population has had it at some point in their lives. Some get it bad and end up with Mono. Just like some have a bad case of the Flu and others get it minor case, like a bad cold. We are all different.

As a virus I don't know how they can eradicate it from out lives. Viruses are hard to treat, or not treatable, and run their course. They can't cure the common cold virus after all this time.

Perhaps a vaccine, but even the Flu vaccine is not stable enough to stop some Flu's that mutate. People that had Rubella, can still get shingles, even those who had the vaccine.

I hope they can do something to stop EBV, but even with today's modern medicine it seems they can't do much to actually destroy it, it may stay dormant, but can reactive just like the herpes viruses and PR, by molecular mimicry.

Good research article find Koala, let's all hope they continue to work on it. Mono is bad enough and MS is a pain in a donkey's hindquarters.

I actually wonder if my MS was triggered by hystoplasmosis http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/communi...oplasmosis.htm
that I contracted when I was 17. I know what it was because it happened to show up in my eye and I had to have laser surgery and lost my central vision in that eye.

Not long after that I began having very bad headaches. Had Never had a headache before that. The doctors could not explain why. They said it was unrelated to the eye problem. Also, I began having balance problems.

Hind sight is always easier. Now I definitely think that was the first MS symptoms.

Hystoplasmosis is not a virus, but I sure have a gut feeling that it is what activated it. But I could be wrong and it could have just been a coincidence. But definitely think that is the same time period it all started. ??????????

I had mononucleosis in late 95/early 96.

I also had shingles in December of 95. (think Shingles is a retrovirus also linked to MS)

The mono knocked me flat on my back about the first or second week of January 96, but I'm pretty sure I was sick with it for at least a month before it got so bad that I had to stay in bed for about a month. So, I'm pretty sure that I had mono AND shingles at the same time.

I've read somewhere about a retro virus (shingles) and a herpesvirus (mono) at the same time having some sort of connection to triggering MS. I'll have to look and see if I can find those links again.

The mono did a number on me. I had weird little cold sores all over the inside of my mouth. I lost my hearing AND my voice for at least several weeks. I'm pretty sure I was awake for nearly two weeks (would sleep about a half hour between some weird nasal drainage problem that I had. Literally constant drainage. I had to sleep sitting up or risk drowning in it. sorry...TMI)

My throat had swollen up so bad that it affected my hearing. I was happy that I'd gotten a brand new tv for Xmas that year and it had closed captioning (something that wasnt quite standard yet) I had the worst bout of laryngitis that I've ever had. I was taking sign language classes at the time and had to drop out of school because of the mono, but I taught my parents a few signs so that I could at least ask for food and water and to tell them how crappy I felt.

I have never been that sick before or since. I've never felt as if I recovered all the way after that. It was about a year after the mono that I started having vertigo attacks. I was pretty sure they were connected to the mono, but thought it was because the sore throat and ear infections I had during the mono had damaged my inner ear or something. I'm pretty sure the vertigo and some of The Hug were my first MS symptoms way back then. I'd get the vertigo at least two or three times a year.

I had a really high fever for a few days during the mono. Had a few that reached 104 degrees. I kind of wonder if getting the MS after an episode of mono has anything to do with the fever and how high and long it lasts. Or if it's just the mono virus interacting with our immune systems that causes the damage.

When I had my blood tests for diagnosis for the MS, my EBV titer was positive. So, I know what I had in 96 was mononucleosis. I even know that I got it from someone at work. We had a little mono epidemic where I worked at the time. (and no, I didnt get mine from kissing anyone.)

That dang herpes virus is the culprit, IMHO!

I've never had a cold sore (herpes simplex) but I did have chicken pox as a child, and shingles during a particulary nasty exacerbation in my thirties. The shingles didn't bring on the exacerbation, rather the other way around. My immune system was so compramised that I got hit badly with the virus.

Shingles and chickenpox were once considered separate disorders. Researchers now know that they are both caused by a single virus of the herpes family, known as varicella-zoster virus (VZV). The word herpes is derived from the Greek word "herpein," which means "to creep," a reference to a characteristic pattern of skin eruptions.

VZV is still referred to by separate terms:

Varicella: The primary infection that causes chickenpox
Herpes zoster: The reactivation of the virus that causes shingles

I got chicken pox when I was 29 and 4 weeks pregnant with my DD...I got it BAD...
I wonder...hmmm...I've also read reports stating that researchers think a retrovirus triggers a gene in our codes that hasn't been active since we were dragging our knuckles, which turns the gene on and Voila! MS...

I guess it is a good time to have MS, if there ever is one...lots of research, and new meds coming down the pipe.