Abstract

The cause of glandular fever (infectious mononucleosis) is unknown but is widely-believed to be viral. This belief is supported only by indirect evidence such as exclusion of other infective agents, failure to respond to antibiotics, and the recent discovery^{1 2} that during an attack of glandular fever patients develop specific antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus. But repeated attempts to isolate a virus, and to infect volunteers have all failed, and this failure raises the possibility that glandular fever may be a non-specific response to a variety of agents, or an exaggerated lymphoid response to a virus infection.