Abstract
Recent studies show that 14-30% of newborn infants with prolonged hospitalizations in intensive care nurseries (ICNs) develop infections with cytomegalovirus (CMV). These infections can be associated with fever, hepatitis and pneumonia. Maternal-infant transmission at the time of birth, and acquisition of CMV through blood products appear to be the major routes of viral transmission. Although most cases of CMV infections occur sporadically in ICNs, our surveillance program has identified several clusters of 2 to 4 infants excreting CMV at the same time in one ICN. These multiple groups of infants with temporally related nosocomial CMV infections suggest that infant-infant transmission of CMV may occur. Using restriction endonuclease analyses, I have compared the DNA fragment migration patterns of the CMV isolates of infants with epidemiologically related infections. In addition, the viruses of a nosocomially infected baby and his mother who developed a primary CMV infection after the discharge home of her infant were compared. At present the analyses indicate that no 2 infants excreting CMV were infected with the same strain virus. However, the DNA digestion pattern of the mother's isolate is identical to her infant's CMV strain. These findings suggest that although nosocomially infected infants are capable of transmitting CMV to other individuals that the risk of infant-infant CMV transmission in ICNs is low with routine methods of handwashing and isolation.
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Spector, S., Connor, J. 1073 MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF CYTOMEGALOVIRUS INFECTIONS IN HOSPITALIZED INFANTS. Pediatr Res 15 (Suppl 4), 621 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01099
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198104001-01099