CDC Features

CDC Features

Learn About Cytomegalovirus

Most children with cytomegalovirus (CMV) don't get sick. However, if a woman becomes infected with CMV while pregnant, the virus can affect her fetus. Such infections can result in birth defects or other serious problems---including death. If you're pregnant or planning a pregnancy, the best way to protect your baby from CMV is to protect yourself.

Pregnant or planning a pregnancy?

Avoiding contact with urine and saliva – especially from young children - with CMV may reduce your chance of getting CMV and passing it along to your unborn baby. Here are a few simple steps you can take to avoid contact with urine and saliva:

Wash your hands often with soap and water for 15–20 seconds, especially after:
- changing diapers
- feeding a child
- handling a child's toys
- touching saliva or nasal secretions from a young child
Do not share food, drinks, or eating utensils with young children
Do not put a child's pacifier in your mouth
Avoid contact with saliva when kissing a child
Clean toys, countertops, and other surfaces that come into contact with children's urine or saliva

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus that can infect almost anyone. Once infected, a person has the virus in their body for life. Since there are different strains of the virus, people can be infected more than once.

The risk of getting CMV through casual contact is very small. The virus is generally passed from infected people to others through direct contact with body fluids, such as urine, saliva, or breast milk.

Most people with CMV never show symptoms, or they experience only mild illness for a short time after they're infected. However, CMV can cause serious health problems in people with weak immune systems and in some children born to women who were infected with CMV while pregnant.

CMV and Pregnancy

For pregnant women, the two most common exposures to CMV are through sexual contact and through contact with the urine and saliva of young children with CMV infection. Limiting the number of sexual partners and practicing safe sex may reduce the risk of catching CMV through sexual contact. No actions can eliminate all risks of catching CMV from young children during pregnancy, but there are some measures that may reduce its spread. The main goal of these measures is to avoid getting children's urine and saliva in your eyes, nose, or mouth. Ways to avoid exposure to urine and saliva that may have CMV in it include washing hands frequently with soap and water, especially after diaper changes, feeding a child, wiping a child's nose or drool, or handling children's toys.

People with CMV infection can shed infectious virus (pass virus from their urine or saliva into the environment). Parents of young children with CMV infection who are shedding virus are several times more likely to catch CMV than are parents whose children are not shedding CMV. Even so, CMV is not spread easily. In fact, among parents whose children are shedding CMV, fewer than 1 in 5 become infected over the course of a year.

If you become infected with CMV while pregnant, there's as much as a 1 in 3 chance you could pass the virus to your fetus. Among children born with CMV infection, about 1 in 5 will have permanent disabilities, such as mental disabilities or hearing loss. If you are infected with CMV before you become pregnant, the risk of passing the virus to your fetus is reduced to about 1 in 100. If you're pregnant or planning a pregnancy and have concerns about CMV, talk with your healthcare provider.

Signs and Symptoms

Photo: Expecting mother and father Most children and adults infected with CMV don't show any symptoms. Others develop a mild illness that can include fever, sore throat, fatigue, or swollen glands. Because these symptoms are like those of other illnesses, you might not realize you or your child has CMV.

About 1 in 150 children is born with CMV ("congenital CMV infection"). Most of these children (80%) recover completely and go on to have no health problems from their CMV infection.

Some children with congenital CMV infection have signs and symptoms at the time of birth, such as the following:

Small body size
Problems with the liver, spleen, and/or lungs
Jaundice (yellow skin and eyes)
Purple-colored skin patches
Seizures

Congenital CMV can also lead to permanent disabilities, including the following:

Hearing loss
Vision loss
Mental disability
Small head
Lack of coordination
Seizures

Photo: A young child In some cases, congenital CMV can even lead to death.

Treatment

A small number of studies have evaluated the use of ganciclovir and valganciclovir to treat infants with symptomatic congenital CMV disease. These antiviral drugs may prevent hearing loss in children with congenital CMV. Therapy with these medications is not routinely recommended because of possible serious side effects. If your child has congenital CMV, talk with your healthcare provider about the best course of action.