Purpose of review: To identify recent developments in the management of congenital cytomegalovirus infection which continues to exact a heavy toll on the developing central nervous system.
Recent findings: A major advance is the publication of a randomized controlled trial showing that hearing loss is significantly decreased by ganciclovir. This treatment should now be offered to all neonates who would have met the eligibility criteria of the trial, that is proven congenital infection with central nervous system involvement when treatment is begun within 1 month of birth. A second major advance is the use of stored dried blood spots to detect cytomegalovirus DNA and so differentiate congenital infection from perinatal infection. This approach has the potential to diagnose a proportion of cases of hearing loss and mental retardation which are currently labelled idiopathic. A third major advance is the clinical evaluation of vaccines against cytomegalovirus. Experiments with guinea pig cytomegalovirus show reduced fetal mortality and congenital infection among dams given vaccines containing the glycoprotein B of the virus. A different vaccine glycoprotein B construct has been shown to be immunogenic and well tolerated in healthy adult and paediatric humans. Recent reviews from the Institute of Medicine and the National Vaccine Advisory Committee emphasize the financial and humanitarian justifications for developing cytomegalovirus vaccines as a high priority.
Summary: Substantial progress has recently been made in diagnosis and treatment. If additional financial support were to be made available to evaluate existing vaccine candidates in controlled clinical trials, congenital cytomegalovirus could potentially become a vaccine-preventable disease.