INFECTIOUS MONONUCLEOSIS WITHOUT CLINICAL SIGNS OR SYMPTOMS

Abstract

The occurrence of numerous epidemics of infectious mononucleosis, in foundling homes, children's hospitals, schools and colleges, has been reported.¹The persons involved in these outbreaks all had symptoms or physical manifestations of some kind. The number of cases in these epidemics rapidly reached a peak and then declined. The blood of most of the patients showed a marked increase in the mononuclear elements. In some instances the abnormal type of lymphocyte considered characteristic of infectious mononucleosis was present; in others an increase in the number of small lymphocytes occurred without the presence of abnormal cells. The results of the Paul-Bunnell test, which was used in only three of the epidemics reported on in the literature, were given as positive in two reports (Nolan^1gand York and Eckley^1k) and negative in the third (Rosenbaum^1f). In view of the fact that the patients in these epidemics of infectious