CMV

[C. Greiner]

On 22 May 1995, Hilbert Leslie wrote:

> At one time I worked in a cardiac transplant unit in nutrition support.  
> One of the common infections after transplantation was CMV.  Since that 
> time some of the other nutrition techs I worked with have come down with 
> "chronic fatigue syndrome" and blame it on CMV exposure, and some of them 
> claim to have been tested and to show antibodies (ie, past exposure or 
> infection).  So, is there any implication of being exposed to CMV if 
> there was no symptoms a the time?  I kind of think they are full of it 
> and hoping to get some time off (workers comp, etc.)
> PS: Why did they get CMV in the first place?  Was it the 
> immuno-suppresion drugs?
> 
> 
Most people will show evidence of past exposure to CMV (prevalence ranges 
from 40 to 100% in adults depending on socioeconomic and geographical 
factors). As a Herpesvirus CMV remains latent (once ya got it ya always 
got it) but rarely causes people with healthy immune systems any problems 
(that is, problems that have been conclusively linked to CMV), however, 
it is a different story in people who have become immunosuppressed 
(transplantation, AIDS, etc...) In these patients, CMV can be severely 
debilitating and even fatal. In the transplant patient, the infection can 
be the result of a primary infection, transmission from a blood 
transfusion or from the transplanted organ or a reactivation of the 
latent virus.