Please support Team AWESOME (aka Enstin and her family) in our participation in the Save a Baby Today 5k! 

We are running to support Maddie's Mission and their work in increasing awareness and supporting research for congenital CMV infection, the most common congenital viral infection in the United States. Congenital CMV infection causes death in an estimated 400 infants and permanent disabilities including hearing loss, vision loss, seizures, and mental disabilities in 8,000-10,000 newborns each year. Even though CMV affects more babies than Down Syndrome, SIDS, spina bifida, FAS, or toxoplasmosis, it is the least well known with only about 1 in 5 women having heard of CMV infection.

There is no vaccine currently for CMV. Both the CDC and ACOG recommend counseling pregnant women about CMV infection, as hygenic precautions can prevent women from contracting the infection during pregnancy and passing it on to her baby. Although up to about 40% of women have been infected with CMV sometime during her life, CMV transmission from mother to baby occurs most often when the woman becomes infected for the first time in her life while she is pregnant. The major source of infection is a mother's other kids! Toddlers can easily become infected at daycare and pass it to their mothers, and even though the virus can be asymptomatic for these toddlers and their mothers, the consequences for the baby can be devastating.

The CMV prevention tips for pregnant women are:

1. Do not share food or drinks with a toddler.

2. Avoid contact with saliva when kissing a child- kiss on the forehead instead of the lips.

3. Wash hands often with soap and water for 15-20 seconds especially after changing diapers, wiping noses or drool, and handling toys.

Treatment with hyperimmune globulin (valganciclovir) before and after delivery of the baby can reduce the risk and degree of long-term complications.

Maddie's Mission is a grassroots Katy-based nonprofit dedicated to congenital CMV awareness and support of research efforts. Farah Armstrong, the founder of Maddie's Mission, had never heard about congenital CMV infection until she lost her own daughter to the infection shortly after she was born. You can read more about her familys story here. Mrs. Armstrong is now passionate about educating others about this devastating disease and supporting legislative and research efforts to prevent CMV infection.

*What is being done to help prevent congenital CMV infection?

 1) Education of the general public- even though CMV is the most common congenital infection, few people have even heard of it. Awareness efforts are of foremost importance in prevention and knowledge of the 3 simple precautions for pregnant women can help reduce the risk of infection.

2.      2) Education of medical professionals- many medical students might have heard about CMV briefly from microbiology but do not know about the CMV transmission, prevention, and treatment. I have been working with Dr. Gail Demmler-Harrison, a Pediatric Infectious Disease professor at Baylor College of Medicine and CMV expert, to inform UT Houston medical students. Medical professionals who are knowledgable about CMV infection can help with prevention and early treatment efforts. In February 2015, we organized a well-attended blue book lunch lecture for the Ob-Gyn Student Organization and other interested students about the basics of congenital CMV infection and plan to continue awareness through lunch lectures in the future.

3.      3) Legislative efforts- Maddies Mission and other CMV prevention supports in Texas have been working on a bill similar to a bill passed in Utah in 2013 to mandate counseling about CMV to pregnant women and provide screening for CMV to all newborns who fail newborn hearing tests.  Support of this bill will be key in further increasing awareness and ensuring affected newborns receive treatment as soon as possible, since treatment with hyperimmune globulin (valganciclovir) can reduce the risk and degree of long-term complications.

4.      4) Continued research- Ms. Demmler-Harrison and other CMV researchers around the world continue their efforts to hopefully one day prevent all babies from being affected by congenital CMV infection. Current research areas include development of a vaccine, improved maternal and newborn screening tests, and further studies of treatment and impact of infection.

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Whether or not you choose to make a donation, I am appreciative of your support of Congenital CMV Prevention efforts by increasing your own awareness!

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Please check out these links if you are interested in learning more about Maddies Mission and CMV:

• CDC CMV Website
  

• Recent Houston Chronicle article about the upcoming Save a Baby Today race
  

• Maddies Mission homepage

If you need more published scientific evidence and enjoy reading papers (I have the PDFs of the full papers saved, let me know if you're interested):

• "Guidelines on CMV congenital infection." 2009 in Journal of Perinatal Medicine.
• "Washing our hands of the congenital cytomegalovirus disease epidemic." 2005 in BMC Public Health.
  
• "Hearing loss and congenital CMV infection: A systemic review." 2014 in Pediatrics. 
• "Perinatal Viral and Parasitic Infections." ACOG Practice Bulletin #20. 2000.