Few people are aware of cytomegalovirus, referred to as CMV, even though more than half of Americans are infected with it by the age of 40, according to infectious disease expert Laura Gibson, MD’94, in a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast.
“CMV is a common virus and belongs to the same virus family as cold sores and chickenpox that live with us for life,” said Dr. Gibson, associate professor of medicine. “It doesn’t necessarily have any negative effects over our lifetime, even though the virus is living with us. But in some situations, the virus can cause very severe disease and even death.”
While CMV is mild in healthy adults and children, a pregnant mother infected with CMV can unknowingly pass the virus onto their baby. It is the most common infection acquired before birth, affecting approximately one of every 200 infants born in the U.S. every year.
“It’s important to understand one of the major risk factors for congenital CMV is when a pregnant individual is exposed to the body fluids of young infants and toddlers who have recently had CMV,” Gibson said.
CMV spreads very easily in day care, early education and household settings where playing, sharing toys, eating and diaper changes are daily opportunities for infection through contact with these body fluids. Gibson is interested in investigating CMV transmission in group child care settings. She’s the principal investigator of a collaborative research study with Moderna, Inc. called CMV Transmission and Immune Tracking (CMV TransmIT). Enrollment is targeted to begin this spring in Worcester and Cambridge. The study will help inform CMV prevention strategies, including awareness campaigns.
Learn more by listening to the full Voices of UMass Chan podcast: umassmed.edu/voices. Subscribe through SoundCloud, Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Voices of UMass Chan is produced by the Office of Communications at UMass Chan Medical School.
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