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June is National CMV Awareness Month - Week 4 "More about CMV"

Want to help raise awareness of CMV? Join National CMV’s hashtag awareness campaign and share your photos and stories on social media! This June, National CMV is launching a new website-based tagboard, a curated public display of all social media posts with the hashtags #stopcmv and #cmvawareness. Each week of June will have a different themed awareness infographic, as well as ideas for a weekly photo that you can post to social media to tell the world about your experience with CMV. 

June is National CMV Awareness Month - Week 3 "CMV is preventable"

Want to help raise awareness of CMV? Join National CMV’s hashtag awareness campaign and share your photos and stories on social media! This June, National CMV is launching a new website-based tagboard, a curated public display of all social media posts with the hashtags #stopcmv and #cmvawareness. Each week of June will have a different themed awareness infographic, as well as ideas for a weekly photo that you can post to social media to tell the world about your experience with CMV. 

June is National CMV Awareness Month - Week 2 "CMV is serious"

Want to help raise awareness of CMV? Join National CMV’s hashtag awareness campaign and share your photos and stories on social media! This June, National CMV is launching a new website-based tagboard, a curated public display of all social media posts with the hashtags #stopcmv and #cmvawareness. Each week of June will have a different themed awareness infographic, as well as ideas for a weekly photo that you can post to social media to tell the world about your experience with CMV. 

June is National CMV Awareness Month - Week 1 "CMV is common"

Want to help raise awareness of CMV? Join National CMV’s hashtag awareness campaign and share your photos and stories on social media! This June, National CMV is launching a new website-based tagboard, a curated public display of all social media posts with the hashtags #stopcmv and #cmvawareness. Each week of June will have a different themed awareness infographic, as well as ideas for a weekly photo that you can post to social media to tell the world about your experience with CMV. 

Acquired CMV: Risks and Treatments

Acquired CMV infection is when a person is infected with CMV after birth, whether during childhood or adulthood. Acquired CMV is actually very common with anywhere from 50-80% of adults in the United States having been infected with CMV by the time they reach 40 years old. However, acquired CMV can cause serious problems for people who are immunocompromised and those who have weakened immune systems.

Acquired CMV: Intro and Symptoms

If you have been affected by congenital CMV, it’s very possible that someone else in your life has also been affected by CMV, but in a very different way. It could be your grandmother who suffered from CMV complications during chemotherapy treatment to fight cancer. Or maybe a family friend who contracted CMV after a successful transplant surgery. 

New conception recommendations for Zika and CMV

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new recommendations for women hoping to get pregnant after possible exposure to Zika virus. Most people infected with Zika virus won’t even know that they have the disease because they won’t have symptoms. Like Zika virus, most women who contract cytomegalovirus (CMV) will not experience any symptoms and may not even know that they have been infected. 

Share your CMV story with National CMV

Perhaps no one is able to give greater insight into living with congenital CMV than the parents of children and adults born with CMV. According to the CDC, each year 1 in 150 children is born with CMV and 1 in 750 will experience disability because of CMV. These high statistics reinforce CMV as a public health concern, but we need to show the world our thousands of children. We need to be the visual, vocal, visceral standard bearers of congenital CMV.

CMV Awareness Flyers

Help us raise awareness of CMV--share, post, and print our awareness flyers and help educate pregnant women, practitioners, and the public about CMV. Post and distribute flyers in public meeting places, such as OB/GYN offices, pediatrician offices, family practice offices, daycares, preschools, college health centers--anywhere where at-risk populations congregate, work, or socialize. National CMV awareness flyers are now available in over 30 languages. 

Back to the basics with CMV expert, Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison

New to the issue of cytomegalovirus? Fancy yourself an expert on all things CMV? Wherever you are in your experience (or lack thereof) with CMV, it's always important to freshen up on the basics from time to time, especially as medical research may develop and policies may change. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with longtime CMV expert and advocate Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison from Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. For over 30 years, "Dr. Gail" has become the de facto expert on infant diagnosis of CMV, as well as treatment and development of children born with congenital CMV while spearheading the National Congenital CMV Disease Research Clinic and Registry.