Cytomegalovirus (cmv) infection

[Dorothey Allen]

Cytomegalovirus infection is a common herpesvirus infection with a wide range of symptoms: from no symptoms to fever and fatigue (resembling infectious mononucleosis) to severe symptoms involving the eyes, brain, or other internal organs.

This virus is spread through sexual and nonsexual contact with body secretions.
Most people have no symptoms, but some feel ill and have a fever, and people with a weakened immune system can have serious symptoms, including blindness.
Cytomegalovirus can cause serious illness in infants who are infected before birth.
Doctors may detect the infection by culturing a sample of infected body fluid, such as urine.
Often, no treatment is required, but if the infection is severe, antiviral drugs may be used.

Infection with cytomegalovirus (CMV) is very common. CMV is a type of herpesvirus (herpesvirus type 5). Blood tests show that 60 to 90% of adults have had a CMV infection at some time.
CMV may cause symptoms soon after infection. Also, it remains dormant (inactive) in various tissues for life. Various stimuli can reactivate the dormant CMV, resulting in virus growth which can sometimes cause disease. The lungs, gastrointestinal tract, brain, spinal cord, or eyes may be infected.
Usually, CMV infection causes no symptoms. Serious infections typically develop only in infants infected before birth and in people with a weakened immune system—for example, people with AIDS or those who have received an organ transplant. In people with a weakened immune system, disease often results from reactivation of the dormant virus.