About CMV
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common infection that can affect anyone. Many adults will have had a CMV infection by the time they're 40 years old, but most won't know it because it usually doesn't cause symptoms.
In healthy kids, a CMV infection is rarely serious and any symptoms it does cause tend to be mild. But CMV infection can be serious for babies and people with weakened immune systems due to illness or medicines, or for an unborn child if the mother has the virus.
Once a person has the infection, the virus (a member of the herpesvirus family) stays in the body but usually lies dormant (or inactive). It can come back weeks or years later and cause more serious illness, but this is more common in kids with immune system problems.
Symptoms
The symptoms of a CMV infection vary depending on the age and health of a child, and the number of times a child has had it.
Babies who are infected in the womb usually show no symptoms of a CMV infection after they're born. In a few cases, there are symptoms at birth, which can include premature delivery, being small for gestational age, jaundice, enlarged liver and spleen, microcephaly (small head), and feeding difficulties. These babies are also at high risk for developing hearing, vision, neurological, and developmental problems.
Premature and ill full-term infants who are infected soon after birth are at risk for neurological and developmental problems over time.
Although CMV infections that happen in kids after the newborn period usually don't cause significant illness, some kids may develop pneumonia, hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), or a rash.
Older kids and teens who become infected may have mono-like symptoms, including fatigue, muscle aches, headache, fever, and enlarged liver and spleen. These symptoms tend to be mild and usually last only 2 to 3 weeks.
CMV can cause serious infections in people who have received organ transplants or those whose immune systems are weakened. In someone with AIDS or HIV, CMV infection may involve the lungs, nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and the eyes, sometimes causing blindness.