An athletic teenager who is diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis is told to avoid contact sports for 3 to 4 weeks. the teenager protests to the nurse and demands to know why sports must be avoided for so long. what is the best response by the nurse?

The nurse should say that the adolescent's spleen is larger and friable from the disease and any physical exertion can cause a ruptured spleen causing internal bleeding.

Explanation:

Also known as kissing disease, mononucleosis often affects teenagers when they wake up to sex. It causes fever, infarction of the neck and armpit ganglia, liver and spleen involvement, among other symptoms.

The treatment of mononucleosis is fundamentally symptomatic, aimed at relieving symptoms and combating fever and sore throat. In addition, the patient should remain in absolute rest and avoid situations that may favor the occurrence of abdominal trauma. This is because when infected with mononucleosis, the spleen grows and becomes friable. Therefore, a trauma can cause its rupture and, as a consequence, an intra-abdominal hemorrhage that may lead to death.