HIV positive women with cytomegalovirus may infect their babies with the virus

HIV-positive women with cytomegalovirus CMV, in their urine at the time of delivery may pass the virus to their babies.

Women who had gonorrhea when they gave birth may also infect their babies with CMV. Babies infected through their mothers and those with weakened immune systems will experience serious health problems.

CMV can impair fetal growth, cause birth defects and babies born with the virus can have damage to their brain, liver, lung and spleen.

 Researchers examined 260 pairs of mothers and 222 babies from who were enrolled in a perinatal study by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

After testing the mothers' and infants' urine for detectable CMV, the researchers discovered that- 2 percent of the women had detectable CMV and 3.8 percent of babies had the virus.

Eight percent of women with detectable CMV had babies with the virus, as opposed to 2.1 percent of women who did not have CMV.

Two percent of women with detectable CMV transmitted the virus to their babies compared with 8.1 of those who did not have CMV.

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