Postnatal Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection in Pediatrics: Case Report and Literature Review

Postnatal cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is acquired through contact with cervical secretions during birth, breast milk, blood transfusion or bodily fluids of infected people. Breast milk is the main source of infection due to high proportion of CMV-positive women who excrete virus in milk. Postnatal CMV infection is usually asymptomatic, however, preterm infants with less protection through maternal antibodies can have a symptomatic infection. Symptomatic CMV infection includes pneumonitis, hepatitis, enteritis, lymphadenopathy, neutropenia or thrombocytopenia. Diagnosis is based on virus detection in correlation with onset of symptoms. Postnatal CMV infection usually resolves without use of antiviral treatment (Ganciclovir/Valganciclovir); antiviral treatment should be reserved for severe cases. Postnatal CMV infection is not associated with complications unlike congenital infection. We report an 8 months old male which presented a postnatal CMV infection with pneumonitis and bicytopenia (anemia and thrombocytopenia) responding favorably to treatment with ganciclovir (12 mg/kg/day) for 21 days.