title: The prevalence of congenital and perinatal cytomegalovirus infections among newborns of seropositive mothers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to determine the prevalence of congenital and perinatal human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infections among newborns in two major neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in Bahrain.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred newborns comprised of 84 preterm and 16 term babies admitted to the NICUs were enrolled in the study. During the first six weeks of life, urine and saliva was obtained from the babies weekly and serial breast milk samples were obtained from the mothers. Maternal serum HCMV IgG was measured. Virus isolation and detection was done by shell vial culture and nested PCR.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Maternal HCMV IgG-seropositivity was 100%. Eight HCMV infections were detected comprising of three congenital and five perinatal infections. Congenital HCMV infection was found in preterm (2/84; 1.9%) and term (1/16; 6.3%) babies. HCMV DNA was detected in breast milk samples obtained during the first 10 days postpartum from all mothers whose babies had congenital HCMV. Forty-nine women provided breast milk samples between four and six weeks post-partum and HCMV DNA was detected in the breast milk of 11 women. Five (45.5%) of these eleven were mothers of babies with perinatal HCMV infection. There was no significant difference in the detection of HCMV using shell vial culture versus nested PCR method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate occurrence of congenital and perinatal HCMV transmission in this setting of high maternal seropositivity. The use of shell vial culture and PCR amplification for HCMV screening in the NICU for rapid detection of infection during the early postnatal period is recommended.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Kingdom of Bahrain.
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alkhawaja
authors.forename: Abdulrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ismaeel
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Botta
authors.forename: Abiola Catherine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Senok
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood; D001445:Bahrain / Q000453:epidemiology; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D003586:Cytomegalovirus Infections / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000821:virology; D015995:Prevalence; D012463:Saliva / Q000821:virology; D044967:Serum / Q000276:immunology / Q000821:virology; D014556:Urine / Q000821:virology; D014776:Virus Cultivation; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G