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Everyone talks about Epstein-Barr like it's unknown, but it's not. Mostly everyone calls it Mono or Mononucleosis. You've probably had chicken pox, but nobody called it varicella zoster which is the name of the virus. Mononucleosis is acute Epstein-Barr -- it's just the symptoms that arrive when your immune system is fighting an initial infection or a flare up when your immune system is compromised, just like chicken pox is acute vericella.
If you've ever been infected with Epstein-Barr, you carry the virus and antibodies for it for the rest of your life. It's a type of provirus, just like vericella or other herpes viruses, you just don't have acute symptoms all the time. Typically Epstein-Barr is the term used for people in their adult lives as opposed to Mononucleosis for teens because the symptoms can be so different depending on your age at acute infection. If you get mono as a little kid, you pretty much just get a head cold. As a teen you get a whole rash of symptoms and as a young adult you mostly get fatigue and malaise.
I think there's two things that can be happening with Epstein Barr in moto.
1. A lot of racers are home schooled and as such spend limited time around other kids who have the virus. A lot of people call it the kissing disease because kids get it from making out, but you'd be grossed out if you really knew how much contact kids have with each other's saliva in school. Sharing food, sneezing, coughing, chewing gum stuck to chairs, spit in water fountains -- the list is endless. A lot of racers don't spend enough time in these densely populated environments to get the virus as teens and it randomly hits them as adults. Who knows where from, but its a widespread virus so that doesn't really matter.
2. Anyone who has ever had the virus can test positive for it afterwards. Typically they test for the antibodies and if the count is high enough, they call it the acute version (mono). However, you can still test positive years later for EBV, even if you're not experiencing an acute infection. What could be happening pretty often is that these racers get some sort of weird transient virus, mental depression or just burn out for awhile and they test their blood and find EVB so just attribute it to that.
Also, think a little bit about the epidemiology for EVB/mono. We rarely hear about players on team sports getting it, but the amatuer ranks for team sports pretty much require you to be in very close proximity of a bunch of people the same age as you. Basketball, football, soccer, etc. People who make it to the pro ranks in these sports probably aren't sidelined with mono as pros because they were exposed to EBV as teens or children. Meanwhile, pro athletes in solo sports report issues with the illness more often. For example, Roger Federer, probably the greatest tennis player in history, had what amounted to an entire year at the peak of his professional career wiped out by EVB (reported as mono). A number of olympic athletes have had issues with it too. These cases are often underreported as the olympics only happen every four years so as long as it doesn't hit you during or in the months prior to the games, you just rest and get on with training later.
There's some conjecture here, but I've done a significant amount of research on the topic after I got mono at around 25 years old. Please correct me if you know more.
The Shop
As for Trey...it sucks that he's out but it might be time for him to call it a career. Take it from me there's more to life than dirt bikes.
Now that is ironic
I hate that one of the most genuinely good guys in moto has had such a rough time, including this latest issue.
Hope he has a speedy recovery and can be the contender he has the ability to be in the mx series.
Wilson now looks solid, and if he stays fit for outdoors, is a good podium bet, especially as the wind looks like it has gone out of Anderson's sails so far this season.
Pit Row
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