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June is Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Awareness Month. CMV
is a common virus that, in healthy people, can cause mild illness or no symptoms
at all. While most are unaware they’ve been infected, by age 40, more than half
of all adults in the United States have been infected with CMV. This virus,
that typically produces mild or no symptoms, increases
the risk of certain birth defects for unborn babies when a woman is exposed
during pregnancy. When CMV
is passed from mom to baby during pregnancy, it is called
congenital CMV infection. Congenital
infection may occur when a pregnant woman experiences a first-time CMV infection,
reinfection with a different CMV strain, or when a previous CMV infection
reactivates.
Since 91 percent of women are unaware of CMV, the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) is
promoting awareness of this public health concern. About one in every 200
babies is born with a congenital CMV infection, but only one in 10 babies with CMV infection at birth will have noticeable
signs of infection including small
head size, jaundice, or an enlarged liver or spleen. Approximately one in five babies with congenital
CMV infection will have long-term health problems such as hearing or vision
loss, intellectual disability, small head size, seizures, or lack of
coordination. Many babies born with congenital CMV infection won’t have
symptoms at birth, but are still at risk of developing hearing loss later in
life.
Cara Gluck is an OSDH regional director for Beckham, Greer, Harmon,
Jackson and Tillman counties, and the mother of a child diagnosed with CMV. She
said awareness is key to prevention, and that a woman should be informed of
risks to her unborn child to include information on CMV.
“My provider knew I was considered in a higher risk category because I
had a young child in a day care setting, and because she was potty-training while
I was pregnant, but never discussed this risk with me,” said Gluck. “Had I only
known, my husband and I could have made some behavioral changes relating to
care for our, then 2-year-old, daughter. He could have been the one to care for
her when she was sick, instead of me.”
She said awareness comes through education and knowing your risk, and encourages
any woman of childbearing years or is pregnant to ask her provider to do the
basic blood screening to determine if she has antibodies. If she does, she is
at a lower risk for spreading the virus to her unborn child.
“I hope in the future, women are educated and screening is done,” Gluck
said.
Since CMV is common in young children, women around young children are at a higher risk for
exposure to CMV. CMV can be passed from children to pregnant women through
urine or saliva during diaper changes, sharing of eating utensils, or exchanging
saliva when kissing.
Women can reduce their risk by wash washing their hands after
contact with bodily fluids and avoid saliva exchange. While routine
testing of pregnant women for CMV infection is not currently recommended by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women can ask their doctor for a simple blood test
to find out about their CMV status.
More information can be found on the CDC
website at www.cdc.gov/cmv/ or The National CMV Foundation website at www.nationalcmv.org.
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Governor Mary Fallin issued a proclamation for CMV Awareness Month to Oklahoma families who have been impacted by the virus. |
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