Breast Milk and the Risk of Cytomegalovirus Infection

DESPITE increasing interest, the modes of transmission of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, particularly in the first year of life, remain ill-defined. During the first year the rate of acquisition of CMV infection throughout the world is variable but high, as summarized in Table 1. 1 - 10 In populations of different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, from 8 to 60 per cent of infants begin shedding virus into the urine during the first year. Intrauterine transmission, although common (it accounts for 0.4 to 2.5 per cent of cases), cannot account for the high rates of perinatal involvement. The remarkable increase in CMV infection that occurs . . .