After about 8 months of being very ill, and three doctors later, I have been diagnosed with Chronic EBV. That said, now I take many vitamins and have quit smoking cigarettes and work out regularly; I feel 100 times better. But even the doctor who found me to have this couldn't tell me anything about what it is. I am worried for my family's health. Can this be spread to them like Mono? Should I be taking certain precautions? And as for myself, I still get dizzy a lot and the pain in both the back of my neck and the annoying enflamed lymph-node bother me constantly. And what could be causing my hands to turn almost yellow? What I need is for someone either in the health profession who can help me out, or someone who suffers from this to please let me know where I can find info on this. Thanx to anyone who helps......................Desperate...

Have you ever had a liver function test? The reason I ask is because yellowing of the skin can occur if a person has liver disease.

Here's what I believe to be true about Chronic EBV. When you first contract EBV, you get Mono...it's the virus that causes it and it's very contagious. When the virus resolves and a person gets better, they are no longer contagious. Well, in some people the getting better part doesn't seem to want to take place...it's almost like they are stuck in it.

See, I don't think that's because the infection itself has become chronic, but rather the damaged caused by it's presence in the body is still there. Usually, the blood testing for EBV will still show positive because they are checking for antibodies to the virus, not for the virus itself.

So, really what I believe you have here is a Post Viral Syndrome rather than a chronic infection and therefore it's very unlikely that you could infect anyone at this point.

I hope this helps you some.