• Most people will non be able to become mono twice in their life.
  • That's considering once y'all're infected with the virus that causes mono, it remains inactive in your body.
  • All the same, those who are immunocompromised may be at a college risk for the virus reactivating, and experiencing mono symptoms more than once.
  • This commodity was medically reviewed past Kristine Arthur, Medico, an internist at MemorialCare Medical Group in Laguna Woods, CA.
  • Visit Insider's Wellness Reference library for more advice.

Infectious mononucleosis, or mono for brusque, is spread by the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), a member of the herpes family, through saliva or respiratory droplets.

More than 90% of people worldwide are infected with EBV. The virus will remain inactive for many of these people, and they'll never have any symptoms of mono.

However, at to the lowest degree 25% of young people who get infected with EBV will develop symptoms of mono, co-ordinate to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But there's some proficient news — if you get mono, information technology's almost impossible to get it again. Hither's why.

Can y'all become mono twice?

Once you've had mono, it'due south extremely unlikely that you'll get it again months or even years later.

When you've been infected with EBV, it remains in your pharynx and blood cells for the balance of your life — but is usually latent, or inactive. Your allowed arrangement produces antibodies in your blood that help protect you against a recurrence of EBV.

"This will give you permanent amnesty from catching the virus once more," says Dimitar Marinov, MD, an assistant professor in the section of hygiene and epidemiology at Medical University in Varna, Bulgaria. "That'southward the reason why you cannot get mononucleosis twice."

However, EBV may periodically reactivate in your body, leading to higher levels of the virus in your saliva. Even if EBV does reactivate, there are usually no symptoms of mono in otherwise healthy people, Marinov says.

However, you could possibly still spread EBV to others, regardless of how long it's been since you were first infected, the CDC notes. That's why mono can be contagious long afterward yous've displayed symptoms.

People with weak allowed systems are more likely to get mono twice

However, if you accept a weakened or suppressed allowed system, also known equally being immunocompromised, then y'all're more than at risk of getting mono more than once. If y'all have the following conditions, yous are more probable to bear witness symptoms of mono if EBV reactivates.

  • People with autoimmune diseases such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, or rheumatoid arthritis
  • People taking immunosuppressant medications, such as corticosteroids like prednisone, to treat autoimmune diseases
  • Cancer patients
  • People with AIDS

Although it is unclear what tin trigger a reactivation of EBV, it may be due to an activation of B cells — a type of white blood cells in your immune organisation — in response to an unrelated infection.

EBV invades your B cells and makes your body produce an excessive number of lymphocytes, the round white claret cells in your lymph tissues, and produce fewer neutrophils, the white blood cells that boost your immune arrangement's ability to fight infection.

EBV-invaded B cells may proliferate more in people with weakened immune systems. This makes them more probable than people with healthy allowed systems to accept astringent symptoms caused by EBV.

In very rare cases, an EBV infection may develop into chronic active EBV (CAEBV). Instead of going dormant, EBV remains active and can lead to serious complications such as a weakened immune organisation, lymphomas, or organ failure. The only current cure for CAEBV is hematopoietic (blood cells) stalk prison cell transplantation.

People from Asia, South and Key America, and Mexico are more than at risk for CAEBV, and information technology's by and large caused by genetic factors. "At that place are people with genetic variations in their immune cells who are more than susceptible to a CAEBV infection," Marinov says.

Other common illnesses that you might mistake for mono

It'due south rare that you lot'll actually go mono twice. So, if y'all've already had mono once, and you think you're getting information technology again, it's more than likely that you lot really accept another illness with similar symptoms, such every bit strep throat or influenza.

Mono symptoms usually begin four to six weeks after you've been infected with EBV. The symptoms typically concluding from two to six or more weeks, which is much longer than they unremarkably concluding for other viral infections.

Strep throat and influenza may resemble mono.
Yuqing Liu/Insider

Unlike mono, the common flu is caused by an influenza virus that can be transmitted not but through saliva, only through the air and by touching contaminated objects.

Flu symptoms normally brainstorm suddenly, soon after you lot get infected, rather than over time as they practice with mono. The flu typically lasts from a week to x days.

And while mono and the flu are caused by viruses, strep throat is caused by group A Streptococcus bacteria, so it can be treated with antibiotics and will ordinarily last less than 1 week.

The bottom line

If you've already had mono, and think you lot may have it again, check with your dr., who tin decide if that's the case — or if yous just take another mutual affliction, similar strep throat or influenza.

Still, in some cases, serious conditions tin also display symptoms similar to mono. This includes hepatitis B, a virus that causes inflammation of the liver and has additional symptoms besides those for mono, such as dark urine and yellowing of your skin. You lot should meet a doctor correct abroad if you have these symptoms.

Related articles from Health Reference:

  • How to treat mono and the best ways to relieve your symptoms
  • How to tell if you have a fever without a thermometer
  • v ways to soothe a sore throat

Laura Goldman is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer who specializes in human and animate being health topics. She writes about her favorite animals at i Nevertheless Beloved Dogs.