cytomegalovirus
Meaning of cytomegalovirus: Cytomegalovirus is a common herpesvirus that usually causes no symptoms in healthy people but can produce serious illness during pregnancy or immune suppression.
Definition of cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus is a virus belonging to the herpesvirus family that infects a large proportion of people at some point in life, often without producing any noticeable illness. Like other herpesviruses, it remains present in the body in an inactive form after the initial infection and can reactivate later, particularly if the immune system becomes weakened.
In people with a healthy immune system, cytomegalovirus infection is usually mild or entirely without symptoms. It becomes more clinically significant in people with a suppressed immune system, such as those undergoing organ or bone marrow transplantation or those being treated for cancer, in whom it can cause serious illness, including pneumonia.
Cytomegalovirus can also pass from a pregnant person to a fetus, and it is recognized as a common cause of congenital infection, which is one reason it is monitored for during pregnancy and in transplant and immunocompromised care.
Also known as
Used in a sentence
Testing for cytomegalovirus was performed given the patient's immunocompromised status.
Good to know
Cytomegalovirus infection is often unnoticed in a person with a healthy immune system, which is part of why its significance changes so markedly in the setting of pregnancy or immune suppression.
Word origin
Where “cytomegalovirus” comes from
Formed from Greek kytos, meaning cell, and megas, meaning large, combined with Latin virus, meaning poison, describing the enlarged cells characteristic of infected tissue.