Cytomegalovirus
Alternate Names : CMV
What can be done to prevent the disease?
Frequent, thorough hand washing and personal hygiene should
limit a few of
the new cases spread from a person shedding CMV. Because CMV is
so common, however, prevention is quite difficult. Special blood filters and
testing of donated organs may prevent a few cases.
What are the long-term effects of the disease?
For most healthy people, a CMV infection has no long-term
effects.
An unborn baby who is infected in the womb may have:
permanent brain damage
behavior problems
blindness,
other effects
An eye
infection in a person with AIDS
may result in blindness. CMV pneumonia or gastrointestinal disease in
transplant patients may cause death.
What are the risks to others?
People who shed CMV can pass it to others. For most people
who get CMV, however, the infection is not serious.
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