100 years of cytomegalovirus research: an overview

The early belief that CMV infection is lacking any obvious clinical or pathological feature which would permit its recognition (19) was followed by a centennial effort to delineate the genuine clinical picture of the disease, until it became evident that infections with this virus are resulting in a wide range of syndromes (6) correlated with the age (70) and/or the immune status of the host (75), rather than causing a single morbid entity. Even a given syndrome may yield various manifestations (39). Transition of one CMV-induced syndrome to another (61), and the concomitance of two different clinical aspects at distinct body sites, as well as the concurrent evolution of a localized CMV process and systemic CMV illness in the same host, have also been reported (36). Certain organ syndromes appear to be frequently associated with transplantation e.g. interstitial pneumonitis following allogeneic bone marrow grafting, or with a severely immunocompromised state, e.g. CMV retinis in AIDS patients. Maximal therapeutical immunosuppression appears to exagerate the clinical symptomatology of CMV infection, and in AIDS patients the concomitant CMV disease attains epidemic proportions and a dramatic, constantly fatal course (18). Conversely, intercurrent CMV infections may constitute a terminal lethal complication of AIDS.