HEALTHIER YOU: Getting Pregnant with CMV
June 5, 2018 by Las Vegas Black Image Magazine
Filed under Health
BY DR. ANNETTE MAYES, OB/GYN
DR. ANNETTE MAYE
CMV is a common virus, diagnosed with a blood test, that infects people of all ages. In the United States, nearly one in three children are already infected by five years of age. Over half of adults by age 40 have been infected with CMV. Once CMV enters the body, it stays there for life and can reactivate. A person can also be re-infected with a different strain of the virus.
Most people infected with CMV show no signs or symptoms. That’s because a healthy person’s immune system usually keeps the virus from causing illness. However, CMV infection can cause serious health problems for people with weakened immune systems and babies infected with the virus before birth.
Most people show no symptoms and are unaware of the infection, though some otherwise healthy people with CMV may experience relatively mild symptoms that may include fever, sore throat, fatigue, and swollen glands.
But people with weakened immune systems who get CMV can have more serious symptoms affecting the eyes, lungs, liver, esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Babies born with CMV can have brain, liver, spleen, lung, and growth problems. Hearing loss is most common health problem in babies born with a congenital CMV infection, which may be detected soon after birth or may develop later in childhood.
People with CMV may pass the virus in bodily fluids — such as urine, saliva, blood, tears, semen, and breast milk. CMV is spread from an infected person in the following ways: from direct contact with urine or saliva, especially from babies and young children, through sexual contact, from breast milk, through transplanted organs and blood transfusions.
Here’s the good news: Healthy people who are infected with CMV do not normally require medical treatment, there are treatments available for people with weakened immune systems and babies who show symptoms of a congenital infection.
For additional information, contact the Las Vegas All Women’s Care Offices at (702)522-9640. Or visit us at 700 Shadow Lane No. 165 (1st floor) in Las Vegas.
