Seroprevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in the United States

Large percentages of women in the United States enter their childbearing years susceptible to a primary CMV infection and a large percentage of these women experience a primary CMV infection during their childbearing years.

What’s known?

• Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a leading cause of congenital illness and disability, including hearing loss and mental retardation.
• Risk of congenital infection is higher for seronegative women who have a primary CMV infection during pregnancy than it is for seropositive women who experience a reactivation or reinfection.
• Adolescents and adults can be infected with CMV through sexual contact and nonsexual, close contact with infected individuals, especially children.

What’s new?

• To determine CMV prevalence in a representative sample of the US population, authors tested serum samples for CMV-specific immunoglobulin G from participants aged ≥6 years in the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1988–1994).
• The prevalence of CMV infection was 58.9% in individuals ≥ 6 years old. CMV seroprevalence increased gradually with age, from 36.3% in 6–11-year-olds to 90.8% in those aged ≥ 80 years.
• When adjusting for age only, CMV seroprevalence differed substantially by race/ethnicity: 51.2% among non-Hispanic white persons, 75.8% among non-Hispanic black persons, and 81.7% among Mexican Americans which persisted after adjusting for demographic risk factors.
• Within the entire sample population, female subjects (63.5%) were more likely than male subjects (54.1%) to be CMV seropositive when adjusting for age only (prevalence ratio, 1.17) and when adjusting for the other demographic risk factors (prevalence ratio, 1.17).
• Large percentages of women in the United States enter their childbearing years susceptible to a primary CMV infection and a large percentage of these women experience a primary CMV infection during their childbearing years, with a disproportionate burden on non-Hispanic black and Mexican American women.
• Authors estimate that each year approximately 340,000 non-Hispanic white, approximately 130,000 non-Hispanic black, and approximately 50,000 Mexican American women aged 15–44 years experience a primary CMV infection, thereby putting their infants at risk of serious disease.
• The authors state that these CMV-seronegative individuals would benefit from public health interventions to prevent congenital CMV infection in their children.