Abstract
Background. Premature infants who acquire cytomegalovirus (CMV) from their seropositive mothers through breastmilk usually develop only mild to moderate symptoms. Case report. We report two cases of extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) who got severely ill after CMV-transmission from their mothers. Both showed mainly pulmonary symptoms and in one patient high frequency-oscillation and nitric oxide-inhalation were administered. There was a strong association between illness and CMV DNA-positive results in breastmilk and cytomegaloviruria of the infants. Discussion. 93% of CMV IgG-seropositive mothers of premature infants in Germany have CMV DNA-positive results of their breastmilk. CMV transmission is 59%, about half of the infants become infected. Conclusion. ELBWI can develop serious to life threatening illness after CMV-transmission from their seropositive mothers. Pasteurization of breastmilk to inactivate CMV might be necessary in small and vulnerable premature infants.
Translated title of the contribution | Severe systemic cytomegalovirus infection of premature infants acquired through breastmilk |
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Original language | German |
Pages (from-to) | 1059-1062 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Monatsschrift fur Kinderheilkunde |
Volume | 149 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2001 |
Externally published | Yes |