Until the twentieth century, such an infectious disease as cytomegalovirus was unknown. And only after the development of high-tech optics, in the human body was found a virus contained in urine, saliva, sperm, blood and breast milk. Cytomegalovirus is also found in a newborn child, provided that the virus is contained in the mother's body.
How does cytomegalovirus appear in a child?
Transmission of the virus occurs with blood transfusion, and also, with natural feeding. Approximately 80% of women who are fertile are infected with cytomegalovirus. For a healthy person, the presence of a pathogenic organism poses no danger. However, with a decrease in immunity, clinical symptoms appear. In this case, it is possible to defeat both individual internal organs and entire systems.
Most often, the presence of cytomegalovirus in a newborn is caused by penetration through the placenta. The most dangerous to get infected during the first third of pregnancy. This can result in the development of vices in the child. If a woman becomes infected before conception, the risk of complications does not exceed 2%. As a rule, the effects of intrauterine infection with cytomegalovirus in the baby become noticeable on the second day. As manifested by cytomegalovirus in development, it is revealed only by the fourth or fifth year of life.
Symptoms of cytomegalovirus in newborns
Infection in the early stages of fetal development can lead to the death of the child or deformities. In late pregnancy, the virus causes jaundice, pneumonia, disorders in the nervous system and a decrease in the number of platelets in the blood. But, there are no violations in the structure of internal organs. The more dangerous cytomegalovirus, so it's complications that developed in the first 12 weeks after conception.
Symptoms of cytomegalovirus in newborns are manifested in the form of rashes, skin hemorrhages, hemorrhages in the eyeball, bleeding from the umbilical wound and the presence of blood in the stool. When the brain is affected, there is drowsiness, trembling of the handles and cramps. Possible blindness or severe visual impairment.
Diagnosis of cytomegalovirus by DNA testing
Despite the clinical symptoms, the diagnosis of the disease is rather difficult. To help come modern techniques based on the detection of antigens of the virus, specific antibodies, as well as, identification of DNA, affected by the virus.
For the diagnosis, which later will determine how to treat cytomegalovirus in a child, carry out pathomorphological studies of the umbilical cord, placenta, and ocular membranes. A woman takes scrapings from the cervical canal, blood, urine, sputum, liquor. Do a puncture of the liver.
A positive igg on cytomegalovirus in a child in the first three months of life is not a sign of the disease. If the mother is infected, antibodies to the virus are transmitted to the infant during intrauterine development. In this case, the presence of cytomegalovirus in the blood is the norm. Therefore, an accurate diagnosis is possible only after three months.
Treatment of cytomegalovirus in children
To prevent the activation of the virus, pregnant women are given immunotherapy, vitamin therapy and antiviral therapy. The first three months of pregnancy are likely to be treated with immunoglobulin.
In the treatment of cytomegalovirus in children, antiviral drugs are widely used either orally, or intravenously, but only in urgent cases.