Cytomegalovirus (CMV) in cervical secretion and breast milk. A thirty years perspective.

During the past 30 years prospective epidemiologic studies have clearly established that infants commonly acquire CMV infection in the immediate perinatal or early postnatal period. CMV reaches the offspring with uterine cervical secretions during the birth process and/or with maternal milk during the breast-feeding period, usually resulting in asymptomatic infection in full-term infants. In young women cervical shedding of CMV may reflect a pelvic inflammatory disease and involves the risk of sexual transmission.