Chronic Epstein-Barr viral infection in children: a clinical case

Abstract

The urgency of Epstein-Barr virus infection is explained by wide circulation of Epstein-Barr virus among children and adults, its tropism to immunocompetent cells with lifelong persistence after primary infection and polymorphism of clinical manifestations from subclinical forms, infectious mononucleosis to formation of oncological, autoimmune hematological diseases.Persistence of Epstein - Barr virus Leads to suppression of cellular immunity, decreased production of interferons and nonspecific protection factors, which contributes to reactivation of persistent infection, most often without mononucleosis-like syndrome, and the appearance of atypical mononuclears in blood with the formation of lymphoproliferative, intoxication, astheno-vegetative syndrome, long-term subfebrile condition, which dictates the need for immunocorrective therapy. This article presents a clinical case describing and analyzing the course of a chronic Epstein-Barr virus infection in a preschool child (5 years 8 months) with a pre-morbid background. Episodes of reactivation of chronic persistent infection occurred under the mask of acute respiratory infection with lymphoproliferative syndrome, purulent tonsillitis, purulent adenoiditis. Therapy, including antibiotics, short-course antiviral agents, bacterial lysates, and physiotherapy, had a temporary and short-lived effect. meglumine acridonacetate. The described clinical case demonstrates the effectiveness of the inclusion of meglumine acridonacetate, which has antiviral, immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory effects, in the complex treatment of Epstein-Barr virus infection, This allowed to obtain fairly rapid positive clinical dynamics of relieving intoxication and febrile and lymphoproliferative syndromes in the acute period, and subsequently - astheno-vegetative syndrome and achieve the transition of active chronic Epstein - Barr virus infection into a latent form.