Birth defect vaccine on the horizon (Gov´t says CMV is a major public health crisis)
I can´t link directly from Reuters - will try to find alternative link. Here´s a snippet: An experimental vaccine for a common virus that can cause mental retardation and deafness in some newborns yielded encouraging results in guinea pigs and may someday lead to a human vaccine, scientists said on Wednesday. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is transmitted to a fetus through the mother´s placenta. Women can carry the virus without being aware. Congenital CMV is the second-most common cause of mental retardation in infants, behind only Down syndrome, and also can cause deafness. "Congenital cytomegalovirus infection is a major public health crisis in the United States today, and the average person on the street doesn´t know anything about it," Schleiss said. "I have these moms come into my practice," Schleiss said, "and invariably what they say to me is, ´I´ve never heard of this before it happened to me and my baby.´" About 1 percent of U.S. babies are born with the virus, amounting to 40,000 per year, researchers said. Medical experts advising U.S. policymakers have deemed development of a vaccine to prevent cytomegalovirus during pregnancy a high priority. AlphaVax said it was seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for the vaccine.
