Experimental Vaccine Shows Promise in Preventing Cytomegalovirus Infection

Women who received an experimental cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine were 50 percent less likely to later become infected with CMV than were women who received a placebo. The findings of this NIAID-sponsored Phase II clinical trial will appear in the March 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Healthy people typically experience no symptoms after being infected with CMV and once infected will carry the virus for life. The virus can be passed to an unborn baby from an infected mother. Infants with such congenital infections can develop severe hearing, cognitive or motor impairments. There is currently no vaccine against CMV, but the results of this trial show it is possible to prevent CMV infections through vaccination and that it may be possible to develop a vaccine to prevent congenital CMV.

For more information, go to http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2009/cmv_vax.htm.