Maddie's Mission, a local grassroots organization in Katy, Texas, was founded in 2014 shortly after Madeline Leigh Armstrong passed away due to complications from congenital CMV.  Our mission is to raise awareness about the potentially harmful effects of CMV during pregnancy and to educate families about prevention measures.  We are diligently working to raise CMV awareness in Katy, Houston, and throughout Texas. Maddie’s Mission conducts CMV awareness events in Katy and the Houston area, distributes pamphlets to doctor’s offices, daycares, and mom’s groups, and hosts fundraisers to support CMV research and education.  We truly hope that our efforts will help other families avoid the pain that congenital CMV has caused us.

Facts about Cytomegalovirus

In the United States, congenital CMV causes one child to become disabled almost every hour. Given this statistic, it is hard to believe that less than 20% of women have ever heard of it. CMV is the leading preventable viral cause of developmental disability in newborns. The key word is preventable. Women must know that it exists in order to prevent it. Approximately 30,000 babies are born with congenital CMV each year in the U.S. Of these, 400 die each year due to severe complications from the virus and at least 5,000 per year suffer permanent disabilities including such things as hearing loss, vision loss, cerebral palsy, and many other devastating effects. Almost all are surprised to learn that disability from CMV affects approximately the same number of newborns each year as Down Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder familiar to almost everyone.

CMV is a common virus that infects people of all ages and is quite prevalent among children between 1 and 3 years of age, particularly those who attend childcare. These infections are often silent; that is, those who are infected are not harmed and may show no symptoms of infection. Close and prolonged contact with body fluids, such as saliva and urine of young children, is a major cause of infection for mothers of toddlers, childcare workers, and preschool teachers. This is only a problem if these women are pregnant (or have weakened immune systems). In other cases, since the virus is very common and usually not harmful, it is not necessary to prevent transmission. If a pregnant woman has never been infected with CMV, she is at risk for a primary infection, potentially the most serious to her unborn child. About half of all pregnant women in the U.S. fall into this category. Between 1 and 4% of them will contract a primary CMV infection during pregnancy and about 40% of these will transmit CMV to the fetus. The numbers may seem small, but when your loved one is affected, they might as well be 100%.

It seems unconscionable not to inform women of the risk of infection and most importantly the prevention steps that might help them avoid catching CMV and possibly passing it to their unborn children. In the present climate, most families learn about CMV and prevention steps they could have taken some time after the virus has infected their child, most often after the baby is born.

Prevention

The prevention steps are simple, but most women would not think to implement them. That’s why education is so important. It would never occur to most mothers that sharing food or drink with their own toddlers could pose a threat to their unborn children. After all, mothers have been sharing body fluids with their young children, in one way or another, since the day they were born.

With proper education about the simple hygiene precautions they can take, pregnant women have the power to reduce their risk of catching this virus. Medical studies have shown that following three simple hygiene precautions can reduce the chance of catching CMV by as much as 50%.  “An ounce of CMV awareness and 3 simple hygiene precautions will significantly reduce the risk of catching CMV during pregnancy,” says Dr. Demmler-Harrison, a leading CMV expert.

3 Simple Hygiene Precautions for Pregnant Women

For more information about CMV, please visit www.maddiesmission.org.