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Cytomegalovirus (CMV), which was initially isolated from patients with congenital cytomegalic inclusion disease, is now recognized as an important pathogen in all age groups. In addition to inducing severe birth defects, CMV causes a wide spectrum of disorders in older children and adults, ranging from an asymptomatic subclinical infection to a mononucleosis syndrome in healthy individuals to disseminated disease in immunocompromised patients. Human CMV is one of several related species-specific viruses that cause similar diseases in various animals. All are associated with the production of characteristic enlarged cells—hence the name cytomegalovirus.
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CMV, a β-herpesvirus, has double-stranded DNA, four species of mRNA, a protein capsid, and a lipoprotein envelope. Like other herpesviruses, CMV demonstrates icosahedral symmetry, replicates in the cell nucleus, and can cause either a lytic and productive or a latent infection. CMV can be distinguished from other herpesviruses by certain biologic properties, such as host range and type of cytopathology. Viral replication is associated with the production of large intranuclear inclusions and smaller cytoplasmic inclusions. CMV appears to replicate in a variety of cell types in vivo; in tissue culture it grows preferentially in fibroblasts. Although there is little evidence that CMV is oncogenic in vivo, it does transform fibroblasts in rare instances, and genomic transforming fragments have been identified.
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CMV has a worldwide distribution. In many regions of the world, the vast majority of adults are seropositive for CMV, whereas only half of adults in the United States and Canada are seropositive. In regions where the prevalence of CMV antibody is high, immunocompromised adults are more likely to undergo reactivation disease rather than primary infection. Data generated in specific regions should be considered in the context of local seropositivity rates, when appropriate.
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Of newborns in the United States, ~1% are infected with CMV; the percentages are higher in many less-developed countries. Communal living and poor personal hygiene facilitate spread. Perinatal and early childhood infections are common. CMV may be present in breast milk, saliva, feces, and urine. Transmission has occurred among young children in day-care centers and has been traced from infected toddler to pregnant mother to developing fetus. When an infected child introduces CMV into a household, 50% of susceptible family members seroconvert within 6 months.
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CMV is not readily spread by casual contact but rather requires repeated or prolonged intimate exposure for transmission. In late adolescence and young adulthood, CMV is often transmitted sexually, and asymptomatic carriage in semen or cervical secretions is common. Antibody to CMV is present at detectable levels in a high proportion of sexually active men and women, who may harbor several strains simultaneously. Transfusion of blood products containing viable leukocytes may transmit CMV, with a frequency of 0.14–10% per unit transfused. Transfusion of leukocyte-reduced or CMV-seronegative blood significantly decreases the risk of CMV transmission.
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