May 25, 2016 – CMV Vaccine

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Anchor lead: Can public awareness drive a vaccine for CMV infection? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a problem, but possibly even greater is cytomegalovirus, or CMV, research by Ravit Boger, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues has shown, yet most people have never even heard of it.

Boger: Public awareness sets up people’s beliefs about an infection.  I really think it’s a wake up call for everybody that it may not be about Zika.  It may be about congenital CMV.  :13

Boger says researchers have been toiling for decades to develop effective treatments for infection, to encourage federal authorities to institute newborn screening, and especially to encourage development of an effective vaccine.

Boger: There is no question that what is needed is a vaccine for CMV prevention. There are several ways of developing CMV vaccines and all of them are in progress.   :11

Boger says CMV infection during pregnancy, just like Zika, will have different outcomes depending on when infection occurs, but prevention is by far the best strategy, and since CMV is found everywhere a vaccine is key.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.