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The Silent Virus Behind Mono Is Now a Prime Suspect in Major Diseases
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.
