Prevalence of congenital cytomegalovirus infection in a CMV-endemic Ugandan population
Abstract Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is a leading cause of childhood deafness and disability worldwide. However, less is known about its epidemiology in low-income regions where most women are CMV-seropositive at conception. We found that cCMV is highly prevalent in rural Uganda (3.73%) and is associated with lower gravidity and placental malaria. We additionally report a high transmission intensity in the first years of life with 97.3% of children acquiring CMV IgG by age 3.
Authors
- Mary Prahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0091-2731)
- Grant Dorsey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0740-0317)
- Pamela M. Odorizzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2598-4766)
- Margaret E. Feeney (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2515-2989)
- Abel Kakuru (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9941-1309)
- Justine Levan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3185-6069)
- Moses R. Kamya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9106-4234)
- Mikias Ilala
- Stephanie L. Gaw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0891-6964)
- Amy K F Davis
- Mary Muhindo
Institutions
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- University of California System (US)
- Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (UG)
- Makerere University (UG)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Open Forum Infectious Diseases
- Published
- 2026-09-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofag566
- Primary Topic
- Cytomegalovirus and herpesvirus research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases