La infección por citomegalovirus (CMV) es la infección viral congénita más frecuente de Europa. Una infección materna durante el embarazo, tanto primaria como debida a una recidiva, puede transmitirse al feto, con desarrollo de lesiones en el. Las infecciones maternas suelen ser asintomáticas y el 90% de los recién nacidos con infección congénita no muestran ningún signo clínico evidente en el momento del nacimiento; por tanto, la mayoría de estas infecciones no se diagnostica. En Europa occidental, la incidencia de la infección congénita es de 3 a 5 por 1.000 nacidos vivos.

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Objective To describe changes in demographic factors, disease progression, hospital admissions, and use of antiretroviral therapy in children with HIV. Design Active surveillance through the national study of HIV in pregnancy and childhood (NSHPC) and additional data from a subset of children in the collaborative HIV paediatric study (CHIPS). Setting United Kingdom and Ireland. Participants 944 children with perinatally acquired HIV-1 under clinical care. Main outcome measures Changes over time in progression to AIDS and death, hospital admission rates, and use of antiretroviral therapy. Results 944 children with perinatally acquired HIV were reported in the United Kingdom and Ireland by October 2002; 628 (67%) were black African, 205 (22%) were aged ≥ 10 years at last follow up, 193 (20%) are known to have died. The proportion of children presenting who were born abroad increased from 20% in 1994-5 to 60% during 2000-2. Mortality was stable before 1997 at 9.3 per 100 child years at risk but fell to 2.0 in 2001-2 (trend P < 0.001). Progression to AIDS also declined (P < 0.001). From 1997 onwards the proportion of children on three or four drug antiretroviral therapy increased. Hospital admission rates declined by 80%, but with more children in follow up the absolute number of admissions fell by only 26%. Conclusion In children with HIV infection, mortality, AIDS, and hospital admission rates have declined substantially since the introduction of three or four drug antiretroviral therapy in 1997. As infected children in the United Kingdom and Ireland are living longer, there is an increasing need to address their medical, social, and psychological needs as they enter adolescence and adult life.

Prenatal screening to reduce the risks of congenital toxoplasmosis has always been controversial. The debate centres on two questions, first whether prenatal screening can be justified at all and second, if it can, which screening programme is the most effective.

Background-In 1996 only 13.5% of previously undiagnosed HIV infected women were detected in pregnancy. In this study, all 265 maternity units in the United Kingdom were surveyed to determine the relation between screening strategy, uptake of testing, and detection rate.Methods-Data on HIV screening strategy and uptake of testing were collected in 1997 by postal questionnaire. The proportion of women with previously undiagnosed HIV infection identified during pregnancy (detection rate) was calculated using data from national obstetric HIV surveillance and unlinked anonymous seroprevalence studies.Results-239 (90%) units responded; 25 of these (10%) had a universal offer strategy, 89 (37%) a selective offer, and 125 (52%) tested only women who requested it. All selective units offered testing to injecting drug users, but only 26% to women who had lived abroad in high prevalence areas. Uptake was over 10% in only eight units, all with a universal strategy, and in 76% of selective units it was below 0.1%. The detection rate was 14.7% in universal units, 7.8% in selective units, and 7.7% in on request units. In universal units, detection increased by 6.3% (95% confidence interval 3.7% to 8.8%) for every 10% increase in uptake of testing. There was evidence of both selective presentation for testing and avoidance of testing among infected women.Conclusions-All current antenatal HIV testing strategies fail to identify most infected women. Universal offer strategies achieve a very low uptake and a poor detection rate. Units with selective strategies tend to test only a minority of women at high risk and do not target all the main high risk groups.

OBJECTIVES:To describe the uptake of interventions to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection. DESIGN:Voluntary confidential reporting of HIV infection in pregnancy and childhood; telephone interview with key professionals in all London maternity units. SUBJECTS AND SETTING:HIV-infected pregnant women and children in the United Kingdom and Ireland. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Trends in breastfeeding, use of zidovudine, mode of delivery and terminations of pregnancy. RESULTS:Between 1990 and 1995, 14 (4%) out of 314 women diagnosed with HIV infection before delivery breastfed compared with 109 (77%) out of 142 diagnosed after delivery. Since 1994, zidovudine use has increased in each 6-month period (14, 39, 67, and 75%; chi 2 = 17.5, P < 0.001), although in 1995 it was the policy of only 48% of London maternity units to offer zidovudine to HIV-infected women. During 1995, 44% of HIV-infected women were delivered by elective Cesarean section. Since 1990, 20% of women first diagnosed in pregnancy were reported to have their pregnancy terminated. CONCLUSIONS:Although detection of previously undiagnosed HIV infection in pregnancy remains low in the United Kingdom, and particularly in London, HIV-infected pregnant women who are aware of their status are increasingly active in taking up interventions to reduce transmission to their infants. If all HIV-infected women attending for antenatal care in London consented to testing and took up interventions and termination of pregnancy at the rates observed in this study, the number of vertically infected babies born in London each year could be reduced from an estimated 41 to 13.

The high uptake of measles/mumps/rubella vaccine since October 1988 has had a major impact on rubella susceptibility in children under five years of age, with interruption of the epidemic cycle and reduction in incidence to a low endemic level. The number of infections in pregnancy reported in England and Wales to the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre fell to 23 in 1990, and to 12 and two, respectively, in 1991 and 1992. The reduction was greatest in parous women, a group who were previously at risk through exposure to their own children. During 1991, however, susceptibility in parous antenatal women rose from 0.7% to 1%, suggesting that post-partum immunisation rates may have declined recently. If continued, this could give rise to outbreaks of congenital rubella in the future during the brief periods of rubella resurgence expected before disease elimination is achieved. Susceptibility among Asian women was four times higher than among non-Asians. Of the total of 94 births of congenitally infected infants since January 1987, only 19 occurred during 1990-92 (but this may increase due to late diagnoses). Factors contributing to the continuing occurrence of congenital rubella include missed opportunities for immunisation at school or post-partum, maternal reinfection, and recent immigration into the United Kingdom. Twenty-two (24%) of the women giving birth to congenitally infected infants since 1987 were Asian or Oriental women, of whom at least three acquired their infections abroad. Imported cases will be distinguished in future surveillance reports.

Over 20,000 women attending for antenatal care at three London hospitals were prospectively studied to determine the prevalence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) antibodies; 54.4% of these women were CMV seropositive. Ethnic group was strongly associated with CMV status: 45.9% of white women were seropositive, 88.2% of Asian, and 77.2% of black women (African/Caribbean ethnic origin). Among 12,159 white women born in the British Isles, seropositivity was independently associated with increasing parity, older age, lower social class, and being single at antenatal booking. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that, in the UK, child to mother transmission of infection plays a significant part in the acquisition of CMV infection in adult life.