Some viruses cause only minor illnesses in children or healthy adults. But they can be devastating to a fetus. When Jennifer Bailey of Houston was seven months pregnant in 1990, she gained a worrisome amount of weight. Ultrasound revealed that the baby's abdomen was filled with fluid and severely bloated. CMV, also a member of the herpes family, is in saliva and other bodily fluids, and is readily passed among family members or toddlers playing together.
Infection usually produces nothing more serious than a cold.
But if a woman contracts CMV for the first time during pregnancy, chances are 50-50 that it will affect her baby. Ten percent of infected babies have problems apparent at birth, and newborns may die if doctors can't clear the infection. Other conditions, such as deafness, vision abnormalities, and mental retardation may be detected later. Caroline Bailey was born deaf, with serious liver, spleen, and kidney disease, and she was covered with red spots. Caroline's research pediatrician, Gail Demmler, M.D., of Texas Children's Hospital, told the Baileys about a research program designed to test gancyclovir, an antiviral medication often used to combat CMV in adults with weakened immune systems but still used only experimentally in children.