Cytomegalovirus and dual infection in infants.
In four unrelated infants without underlying immunodeficiency, dual infections with cytomegalovirus (CMV) and another microorganism developed. The patients included the following: (1) a 3-month-old girl with congenital CMV and perinatal cutaneous herpes simplex virus; (2) a 5-week-old girl with CMV and Pneumocystis carinii; (3) a 12-week-old girl with CMV and Haemophilus influenzae meningitis; and, (4) a 2 1/2-month-old girl with CMV and Escherichia coli meningitis. In all four cases, the patient's initial symptoms were referable not to CMV, but to the companion infecting organism. The diagnoses of CMV infection were made, respectively, by a high index of clinical suspicion in the first three cases and on the basis of a lucent parenchymal defect on computerized tomographic scan in the fourth patient. These cases provide additional evidence that CMV infection may predispose to secondary infection. We recommend that infants who have signs of infection and evidence of CNS abnormalities have cultures made for CMV. Both human CMV and experimental murine CMV infections have been associated with suppressed cellular and possibly humoral immunity.
D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000150:complications*; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D006849:Hydrocephalus / Q000175:diagnosis; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008581:Meningitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D008583:Meningitis, Haemophilus / Q000175:diagnosis; D011020:Pneumonia, Pneumocystis / Q000175:diagnosis