Congenital cytomegalovirus infection in an urban Canadian community

Abstract

congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was diagnosed in 64 (0.42%) of 15,212 infants born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, during a period of 44 consecutive months. Urine specimens collected within 48 hr of birth were screened for CMV by inoculation into cell cultures. Only four infants had clinical or laboratory findings in the first week of life that suggested cytomegalic inclusion disease; CMV infection was mild or inapparent in the remainder. Fourteen CMV-positive infants (21.9%) had birth weights of less than or equal to 2,500 g, including eight of 11 premature infants (less than or equal to 37 weeks of gestation). Only five CMV-positive infants were small for gestational age. Overall, there were no significant differences between CMV-positive and CMV-negative infants in mean gestational age or mean measurements of weight and head circumference at birth. Mothers of CMV-positive infants were predominantly younger, primiparous women of lower educational and economic status, and the number who were unmarried was about threefold greater than among mothers of uninfected infants.