When you were pregnant, what did you do to get ready?  I read What to Expect When You’re Expecting, went to regular OB/GYN checkups religiously and watched everything that went into my mouth. 

I was in Texas at the time, which does five blood tests on newborn babies for diseases I had never heard of before.  Yet even after all this education, I still was unaware what congenital Cytomegalovirus (CMV) was until just recently.  I’m not alone. According to the CMV Action Network only 14 percent of women know about CMV.  June is CMV Awareness Month and I couldn’t let another one go by without sharing my newfound knowledge with other mothers like yourselves.

According to the CMV Action Network, CMV is a common virus that is usually harmless to people with a healthy immune system. But children’s immune systems are just forming when they are babies.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), CMV is the most common congenital viral infection in the United States.

One in 150 children is born infected with CMV. Each year, 30,000 children are born with congenital CMV causing 400 deaths and leaving 8,000 children with permanent disabilities such as deafness, blindness, cerebral palsy, mental and physical disabilities and seizures. More children will have disabilities due to congenital CMV than other well-known infections and syndromes, including Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Spina Bifida and Pediatric HIV/AIDS. 

CMV can be transmitted to an unborn child from a pregnant mother experiencing a CMV infection. CMV is a threat for pregnant women, mothers, daycare workers, preschool teachers, therapists and nurses. It is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids like saliva, urine, tears or blood. There are treatments for pregnant women that reduce the risk of infection of the baby and treatments for newborn babies with CMV but no vaccine to prevent it.   

So, what can be done to stop CMV? The simple route to prevention is washing hands with soap and water after handling diapers or other secretions of babies and young children. 

Also, do not share food, drinks or eating utensils with young children.  Don’t put a child’s pacifier in your mouth or share a toothbrush with a young child.  Clean toys, countertops and anything else that comes into contact with children’s urine or other bodily fluids. I know I ate after my son occasionally and also sometimes would “clean” his pacifier by putting it in my mouth if we were somewhere without water. 

As I mentioned, June is CMV Awareness month and the CMV Action Network is trying to raise awareness of the disease by encouraging other people to do the same through their social networks—Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter. It has graphics you can use on these networks as well as sample tweets.

It also sponsors handraising collections.  People write “Stop CMV” on their hands and upload photos of their hands to the CMV Action Network website or Facebook page. Doing so raises awareness and will also be used to lobby the government on behalf of CMV prevention.

As I’ve said before, sometimes the greatest way to make a difference alongside volunteering is to raise awareness. That’s why I dedicated my blog this week to CMV awareness.