The epidemiology of cytomegaloviral infection in women attending a sexually transmitted disease clinic

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that cytomegalovirus (CMV) is sexually transmitted, we examined the association of CMV infection with indices of sexual activity in 347 women attending a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that seropositivity to CMV (complement-fixation antibody titer, greater than or equal to 1:8) was most closely associated with number of sex partners in the subjects' lifetime (P less than .0001), young age at first sexual intercourse (P = .0002), and nonwhite race (P = .0007). Among seropositive women, cervical shedding of CMV was most strongly associated with younger age (P = .0001) and the presence of cervical chlamydial infection (P = .016). Among 84 seronegative women followed up for a mean of 18.4 weeks, 11 (13%) developed primary CMV infections, an annual incidence of 37%. Sexual contact seems to be an important mode of acquisition of CMV in some young women.