CMV is More Common Than Zika

What most new mothers don’t know, along with most women of childbearing age, is that cytomegalovirus or CMV is a widespread virus.

CMV can have serious consequences for unborn children and people with weak immune systems. Effects of CMV on an unborn child can be similar to the Zika virus.

Despite the prevalence of CMV, screening is not commonly done.

It’s estimated that about half of all adults have CMV, which stays in the body for life. People with weakened immune systems can be hit with brain, liver, spleen, lung and growth problems. Much lesser known CMV is part of the herpes family and can infect people of all ages, although most will have no symptoms.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in the United States about 1 out of every 150 babies are born with CMV, and nearly 1 in 3 children already have the virus by the age of 5. About 20 percent of babies with congenital CMV will develop some disability in the first few years of life, most often hearing loss.

“Work on a vaccine for CMV has been going on for many years, but at this point only some antiviral drugs are available to lessen the effect of an infection, including valganciclovir,” said microbiologist Charles Rinaldo, Ph.D., an expert in cytomegalovirus at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

“There’s a lot of push to get a CMV vaccine,” he said. ”Trials are going on, but nothing is proven to do the job. We’re trying to improve the drugs as well, make them less toxic.”

Supporting a vaccine that would both prevent a person’s first CMV infection and reduce the effect of a reactivated infection is obstetrician/​gynecologist Richard Beigi, chief medical officer at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.

“It is true that this particular infection receives disproportionately low attention and resources,” he said. “In general, public health officials are reluctant to do mass testing unless there are interventions.”

Babies at Magee were part of a National Institutes of Health study on CMV screening, not yet published. Out of a total 100,000 babies, more than 19,000 babies at Magee were screened and followed for four years.

Researchers found that saliva testing is the most accurate.

“Now everyone who fails a hearing screen twice, we want them to be screened for CMV,” she said. Other babies with symptoms associated with CMV should also be screened, she added.

“We don’t want to wait until 3 months to get help.”