Blog

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. 

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.