Presented by: R Pass. University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, AL, USA.

Congenital CMV infection may be the leading cause of sensorineural hearing loss
in children and can lead to mental retardation, cerebral palsy and impaired
vision. Because congenital CMV infection is relatively common and rarely fatal, it
is an important cause of disability, which impacts its victims and their families
over a lifetime and has significant economic impact on the health care system. A
special committee of the National Academy of Sciences that reviewed priorities
for vaccine development in the US concluded that a vaccine aimed at prevention
of congenital CMV infection should be a top priority.
Although there is concern about the ability of the host immune response to
prevent re-infection with CMV and even to prevent disease, there is substantial
evidence that maternal immunity prior to conception will decrease both the
frequency and severity of fetal infection. What is now needed is a vaccine
candidate that will safely stimulate an immune response that will either prevent
or modify maternal infection so that fetal infection and disease are prevented.
Several vaccine candidates are now in various phases of preclinical and clinical
testing in humans and large-scale efficacy trials will likely occur in the
foreseeable future.

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