Causal treatment of congenital cytomegalovirus infection: current achievements and routine practice

The key factor for the effective treatment of infectious diseases is timely causal treatment [1, 2]. However, due to various reasons, the arsenal of etiotropic drugs for the treatment of congenital infections (CIs) has been significantly small [3–6]. At the same time, in the treatment of bacterial CIs (congenital syphilis, congenital listeriosis, congenital Streptococcus agalactiae infection, congenital chlamydiosis, congenital ureaplasmosis, congenitan mycoplasmosis and other), only some of the effective antibiotics are not safe enough for use in newborns. What is more, until recently, there were practically no etiotropic therapies except Aciclovir for the treatment of viral CIs [2–6]. In view of the fact that cytomegalovirus infection (CMV) is the most common viral CI (in the US, it is diagnosed in 1% of all live births), the absence of etiotropic therapies has been particularly critical for the management of congenital CMV infection [2]

STREPTOCOCCUS AGALACTIAE CARRIAGE RATE AMONG WOMEN OF CHILDBEARING AGE AND ITS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONGENITAL INFECTIONS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF A PILOT STUDY

Tracheobronchial aspirate samples for PCR were obtained from 78 newborns with intrauterine pneumonia to verify the disease etiology. It was found that in 11.5% of cases congenital pneumonia was caused by Streptococcus agalactiae (S. agalactiae).  PCR test of pap smears obtained from 401 women (aged from 17 to 35 years) found the genome of S. agalactiae in 19.5% of cases. In 31 of the 78 infected women (39.7%), carriage of S. agalactiae was asymptomatic, characterized by the absence of complaints or any clinical or laboratory manifestations of the inflammatory process. The high S. agalactiae infection level in reproductiveage women and its role in the etiology of congenital infection determines the need for compulsory screening of pregnant women for S. agalactiae and antibiotic prophylaxis of perinatal S. agalactiae infection