Original ArticlePrevention of child-to-mother transmission of cytomegalovirus among pregnant women
Section snippets
Subjects
Subjects were mothers who were either pregnant or not pregnant but attempting conception (using no contraception) who had a child younger than 36 months of age enrolled in 1 of 124 childcare centers in Central, Northern, and Eastern Virginia from 1999 through 2001. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects. The human experimentation guidelines of the US Department of Health and Human Services and those of Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia were followed in the
Results
During the study, 234 eligible women were enrolled. Excluded from the data analysis were 42 women in the control group who at enrollment were CMV-seropositive and 26 initially seronegative women who failed to provide follow-up specimens. One hundred sixty-six women who were initially seronegative completed the study.
At the end of 1999, an interim data analysis showed that half of the children who shed CMV at any time during maternal participation were not shedding when their mothers were
Discussion
CMV-seronegative women with frequent contact with young children in group day care have between a 5- and 25-fold increased risk for acquiring CMV from these children compared with seronegative women not in contact with young children.3., 4., 5., 14., 15., 16. The consequences of CMV acquisition during pregnancy may be severe for the developing fetus.2 Whether CMV transmission occurs through contact with contaminated environmental surfaces (fomites), saliva, urine, or respiratory droplets is
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Supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.