The CMV is a virus that is the most common infectious agent that can pass from mother to fetus. Ιt causes brain damage and it is the major cause of infectious congenital deafness resulting in sensorneural damage. Fortunately only 10-15% of congenitally infected newborns are symptomatic.
CMV is secreted in urine, saliva, cervical, semen, blood. Women of childbearing age are infected usually by their children who usually bring the virus home from kindergartens where the incidence of primary infection is greater because of asymptomatic toddlers. 60% of women of reproductive age have antibodies to CMV and seem to protect the fetus from a reinfection. The risk of serious infection with CMV congenital seem to occur almost exclusively in women infected with CMV for the first time during their pregnancy. 1-4% of women who were CMV-negative will become CMV-positive during pregnancy. Of those who will become infected only 30-40% will transmit the virus to their fetuses. Of those fetuses who will become infected, only 15% will present clinical findings at birth.