A Prospective Study on Congenital and Acquired Cytomegalovirus Infections in Infants

Abstract

A preliminary report is presented on a current prospective virological and clinical study of congenital and acquired infant cytomegalovirus (CMV) infections. During a 1-year period, 7/2200 newborn Swedish infants investigated (0.3%) had a congenital CMV infection as shown by positive virus isolation. Two of them had typical symptoms, hepatosplenomegaly and petechiae in one case and splenomegaly in the other one. All of them had a normal birth weight and normal head circumference. No sequelae have been observed during an observation period of up to 9 months. Five out of 10 control infants followed-up acquired a CMV infection within a few months. 5/7 mothers of the congenitally infected infants and 3/14 mothers of the control infants were primiparas.

Screening for Viral Infections in Infants With Poor Intrauterine Growth

“…It is possible that mother or baby may not still be excreting the virus at delivery. However, it is wellknown that congenital viral infections often cause longterm virus excretion from the babies (5,20,24). An alternative way to diagnose viral infection during pregnancy would be repeated sampling for virus isolation from early preg-…”

Antibodies to Cytomegalovirus Among Personnel at a Children's Hospital

“…If some of the personnel without detectable CMV-antibodies are, or might be, pregnant, they should therefore take precautions to avoid close contact with patients or their blood or excretions. It is not practicable only to avoid contact with known virus excretors, as proposed by others ( 2 ) , since most excretors have no other signs of CMV-infection (1,3).…”

Risk of Cytomegalovirus Infection in Nurses and Congenital Infection in Their Offspring

“…The accuputiond study comprised the mothers of 36 infants congenitally infected with CMV ( 2 3 of them from a prospective study) and the mothers of 36 infants without congenital CMV infection (all mothers from the prospective study). Most of the mothers are included in other reports (4,7,8). The occupational information was obtained from the mothers themselves or from the case records.…”