Cytomegalovirus

Definition:
It is one of the most common types of virus; it belongs to family of herpes Virus. It is usually present in the bodies of most people without causing any serious symptoms. Once the CMV enters the bodies it is most likely to stay there for entire life.
CMV Usually causes mild symptoms like Fever sore throat, fatigability, but in people where immune system is week it causes serious and debilitating symptoms.
Causes:
People are usually exposed at an early age 10 to 35. Teenagers are the most affected group of people from CMV.
CMV is usually transmitted by droplets released during cough or sneezing of the infected person. When any individual breathes theses droplets the virus also enters the body. Other ways of transmission are through blood transfusion or through organ transplant.
CMV can also be transmitted to person having unprotected sex with the infected person. It can also be transmitted from infected mother to the fetus, and also through breast milk while feeding the baby.
CMV can also be infected by people who care for infected babies or infected patients through urine or stools example while changing the soiled clothes.
Symptoms:
People with lower immune system are the ones who suffer from the serious symptoms people like:
Suffering from HIV
Who have undergone chemotherapy.
People having to take immune suppression drugs as they underwent organ transplant.
Once the Virus infects a person it will live in the person’s body for their entire life. The most common symptoms for people who have good immune system are mild and they are:
Sore throat
Fever
Body aches
Night sweats
Vomiting
Nausea
Diarrhea
Loss of appetite
Joint aches and stiffness
Pain in abdomen.
On physical examination the signs are:
Enlarged liver which might be painless or painful.
Enlarged spleen.
Enlarged lymph nodes around the neck, and sometimes around genital area if the virus is transmitted sexually.
The serious symptoms affecting the people who have a weak immune system are
High temperature for more than 2-3 weeks.
Jaundice
Acute hepatitis
Pneumonia
Coma
Stomach and esophagus ulcers
Encephalitis.
Retinitis is a rare complication in people with infection of CMV, and they will suffer from sight loss or transient blindness because of the detachment of the retina.
Diagnosis:
Because of the mild symptoms in normal people the virus goes undiagnosed, but with people who have debilitating symptoms diagnosis is made basically by lab values of
Abnormal White blood cell count.
Antibodies specific to the virus…
Liver function test as the liver will be affected.
Treatment:
In mild cases the patient does not need any treatment as the disease is self limiting and all the symptoms get cleared within 2-3 weeks
The at most treatment for mild symptoms are over the counter pain killers to counter the body aches and also some antipyretics to reduce the fever.
For serious symptoms the use of antiviral drugs is essential and also sometimes life caring measure will be necessary.