Epstein-Barr Virus Associated Infectious Diseases in Children

Key Laboratory of Major Diseases in Children and National Key Discipline of Pediatrics by Ministry of Education, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, PR China

*Corresponding author:

Kunling Shen, Zhengde Xie

Key Laboratory of Major Diseases in Children and National Key Discipline of Pediatrics by Ministry of Education

Beijing Pediatric Research Institute

Beijing Children’s Hospital

Capital Medical University

Beijing 100045, PR China

Tel: 13522167212

Email: kunlingshen1717@163.com or xiezhengde@bch.com.cn (Zhengde Xie) or

            liwei.gao@ncich.com.cn (Liwei Gao)

Abstract

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a member of the human herpes family and was discovered in cultured cells of Burkitt lymphoma as the first human tumor virus. It has been found to be associated with numbers of tumors, including Hodgkin lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and gastric carcinoma and so on. Besides tumors, EBV also can cause infectious diseases. Infectious mononucleosis, chronic active EBV infection, EBV associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis are three most common and important EBV associated infectious diseases in children. Infectious mononucleosis is a self limited disease, but the other two diseases are severe diseases with poor prognosis. This review mainly focuses on these three EBV associated infectious diseases in children.

Keywords: Epstein-Barr virus, infectious mononucleosis, chronic active EBV infection, EBV-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

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