Universal newborn screening of congenital cytomegalovirus using dried blood spots and qPCR

Cytomegalovirus is prevalent and usually benign in healthy populations. Permanent health problems can arise when transmission occurs prenatally, resulting in congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV). Screening for cCMV is currently not universal but reactionary to symptoms. Because of this, molecular methods using saliva, urine, or blood freshly collected are inadequate as symptomatic patients may no longer be infected or become infected postnatally. Newborn Screening (NBS) currently uses dried blood spot (DBS) cards that are collected neonatally for other screening.