Mónica Suárez

Risk of primary cytomegalovirus infection during pregnancy according to maternal age

We have studied two groups of pregnant women 939 adults and 246 adolescents whose first prenatal visit was prior to 14 weeks of gestation. These women belong to a low socioeconomic group attending public obstetric outpatient services of the National Health System (NHS) of Santiago-Chile and the Adolescent Reproductive Medicine Center Medical School University of Chile. The seroprevalence of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection was established in the first trimester through an enzymelinked immunosorbent assay test being quite high in both groups: 95% in adults and 89.9% in adolescents. All seronegative women were followed prospectively to document the occurrence of primary CMV infection during pregnancy and the presence of congenital infection in their newborns. We found that 4 of 25 seronegative adolescents acquired CMV during pregnancy as compared to 1 of 47 adult women. Of the babies born to the 4 adolescent mothers two had congenital infections one was not evaluated and the remaining baby had neither clinical nor laboratory findings consistent with CMV as was the case with the child born to the adult mother with primary CMV infection. (excerpt)