CMV Infection

[njrohe]

My cousin is five months pregnant and just tested positive for CMV infection.  I was reading about it, and it seems like it is only a big deal if you contract CMV during pregnancy.  If you are already infected prior to pregnancy, the odds of passing it on are small and the odds of it hurting your baby even smaller, but I don't know if there is a way to find out when she was infected.

Anyway, just wanted to throw it out there.  I am now contemplating getting myself tested for CMV before each pregnancy to know my risk because apparently MOST people have CMV infection before adulthood.

[Whitneylauren]

I copied this from americanpregnancy.org
What is Cytomegalovirus (CMV)?
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a virus that can be transmitted to a developing child before birth. CMV infection is usually harmless and rarely causes illness. For most healthy persons who acquire CMV after birth, there are few symptoms and no long-term health consequences. Once a person becomes infected, the virus remains alive, but usually dormant within that person’s body for life. There are two different types of infection: primary CMV and recurrent CMV infection. Primary infection can cause more serious problems in pregnancy than recurrent infection can. However, if a person's immune system is seriously weakened in any way, the virus can become active and cause CMV disease. For the majority of people who have CMV infection, it is not a serious problem.

[njrohe]

I'm not totally sure.  It's in the herpes family.  But it sounds a lot like mononucleosis in that you get flu-like symptoms that eventually go away and it lives dormant in you for the rest of your life, but it can be dangerous to unborn babies.

[LittleMissBeatz]

what is CMV??