Investigation of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection incidence in newborns

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is considered to be the most common cause of congenital infections and the frequency of congenital CMV infection is 0,2-2,2% of all live births in the world. This infection is recognized one of the most important causes of neurological damages and sensorineural hearing loss in children. Aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of congenital CMV infection in newborns at Akdeniz University Hospital. A total of 886 (435 female and 451 male) and 0-21 days old babies at Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine were included into this study, consist from the ones were being hospitalized by their mothers following the birth at Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic, ones were being followed at Pediatrics Clinic and ones applied for hearing test to Audiology Polyclinic of Otorhinolaryngology Department, between May 2012 and July 2013. CMV DNA has been investigated via real time polymerase chain reaction (with LightMix Human Cytomegalovirus, TIB MOLBIOL, Germany) after DNA extraction by using commercial kit (High Pure Viral Nucleic Acid Kit v17.0, Roche Diagnostics, Germany) in the urine samples of babies. The prevalence of congenital CMV infection was found to be 0,9%, in 3 cases (37,5%) with symptoms (prematurity and / or low birth weight and / or hiperbilirubinemi). No statistical relationship was detected between congenital CMV infection and sex, gestational age at delivery, mode of delivery, birth weight, craniofacial anomalies, hyperbilirubinemia, need for phototherapy, intensive care needs, need for mechanical ventilation, deafness in the family, hearing test result or if the mother underwent spend febrile illness during pregnancy. This study is the first study in Turkey which investigates the prevalence of congenital CMV infection in newborns. For over a year, the positivity rate of 0,9% which was determined by working on numerous cases, shows that congenital CMV infection exists in our country