[Congenital cytomegalovirus infections in a neonatal pathology unit]

In order to evaluate the incidence of congenital CMV infections we checked 200 babies in the special care baby unit of an obstetric clinic in Milan. In the same period 3779 babies were born in that clinic. Congenital CMV infection was diagnosed by virus isolation from urine specimens collected in the first week of life in two babies. One of them was asymptomatic, the other had the classical CID. Virological confirmation of a further CID observed in an infant hospitalized at that time in the unit was obtained. Different serological methods of congenital infections diagnosis, specific IgM, total IgM and IgA, rheumatoid factor determinations, were employed. Only the CMV-IgM ELA method didn't give false positive reactions and picked up 2 congenitally infected babies out of 3. From our data, we infer that the incidence of congenital CMV infection in the general milanese population might lie between 0.5-1% of live births. The level of seropositivity for CMV antibodies in the same population, as judged from the complement fixing antibodies determinations in the group of the mothers, was 87%.