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CMV
Dear Doctors,
I have a couple of questions about cytomegalovirus. I know for sure that I have it since all my tests are positive. There is a lot of contradictive information about it, so I am a bit confused.
1- Is it an STD or not?
2. How exactly it is spread?
3. What can I do to prevent infecting others? According to some sources it can be spread even by sneezing! Can I infect my fellow workers? Can I infect others through, say, food? By a handshake? Shall I always wash my hands after contact with mouth, eyes, nose, etc.?
4. Does it travel through the body or is it like herpes and stays in the same place? If we assume I was infected through saliva, am I also infectious by urine or vaginal fluids?
5. What are disclosure guidelines with respect to CMV? Who am I supposed to disclose it to? If it is transmitted by kissing and close contact, does it mean I have to tell a partner at the very beginning?
6. What activities are safe (what can I do with a partner that definitely will not spread the virus)?
Meanwhile I think that the best option is to avoid all situations leading to a closer contact. The other problem is that the virus is not widely known. I have no idea how to talk about such things, and it is understandable, that a person would not like to knowingly expose himself. The worst thing is that he can spread the information and I will end up with a bad reputation or people will be afraid of me because I am contagious. I read stories, where it was a serious problem. I am also afraid that my virus may end up somewhere where it can cause harm (I am thinking of damage to unborn babies and CMV retinitis, etc.) Otherwise CMV is very common, and many people get it as children. I am really confused. These issues are not medical ones, but I thought that with your long experience in the field you may also have smth. to say on the subject. Otherwise just ignore it.
Thank you very much.
I have a couple of questions about cytomegalovirus. I know for sure that I have it since all my tests are positive. There is a lot of contradictive information about it, so I am a bit confused.
1- Is it an STD or not?
2. How exactly it is spread?
3. What can I do to prevent infecting others? According to some sources it can be spread even by sneezing! Can I infect my fellow workers? Can I infect others through, say, food? By a handshake? Shall I always wash my hands after contact with mouth, eyes, nose, etc.?
4. Does it travel through the body or is it like herpes and stays in the same place? If we assume I was infected through saliva, am I also infectious by urine or vaginal fluids?
5. What are disclosure guidelines with respect to CMV? Who am I supposed to disclose it to? If it is transmitted by kissing and close contact, does it mean I have to tell a partner at the very beginning?
6. What activities are safe (what can I do with a partner that definitely will not spread the virus)?
Meanwhile I think that the best option is to avoid all situations leading to a closer contact. The other problem is that the virus is not widely known. I have no idea how to talk about such things, and it is understandable, that a person would not like to knowingly expose himself. The worst thing is that he can spread the information and I will end up with a bad reputation or people will be afraid of me because I am contagious. I read stories, where it was a serious problem. I am also afraid that my virus may end up somewhere where it can cause harm (I am thinking of damage to unborn babies and CMV retinitis, etc.) Otherwise CMV is very common, and many people get it as children. I am really confused. These issues are not medical ones, but I thought that with your long experience in the field you may also have smth. to say on the subject. Otherwise just ignore it.
Thank you very much.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
When a sexually transmissible infection is universal, largely unpreventable, and generally harmless, most experts agree there is no point in automatic disclosure, and therefore no point in routine testing. This is why no STD experts ever advise routine testing for CMV; in fact, your question is the very first time in my professional career that such a question has been asked. The "possibility of a serious outcome" is too rare for CMV to be a worry. That you "read a story" of someone's bad outcome is the worst possible evidence about how bad a problem this is.
Based on this and your previous threads on MedHelp, I'm worried you may have an underlying mental health problem. Being so concerned about contamination and contagion is not normal, and such obsessions can grow to become very serious psychological disabilities. For an example where it can lead, rent "The Aviator", the movie biography of Howard Hughes. (It's a terrific movie as well.)
Based on this and your previous threads on MedHelp, I'm worried you may have an underlying mental health problem. Being so concerned about contamination and contagion is not normal, and such obsessions can grow to become very serious psychological disabilities. For an example where it can lead, rent "The Aviator", the movie biography of Howard Hughes. (It's a terrific movie as well.)
Also I still don´t know for sure whether I have HSV1 and am a bit concerned about HPV possibility from my one non-penetrative contact years ago (you know the story if you read my posts), and it´s all is not easy to deal with.
Thank you very much. Yes, I was in Russia at the time (and am originally from there as well), and there is a routine blood testing for CMV for all pregnant women (in some other countries there is as well as far as I know). Additionally gyns offer a swab test for a number of infections, CMV included. My swab was negative. My blood test was initiated by me (you can´t imagine how I regret it now!), because I wanted to be sure I have no infections.
There is one thing I don´t really get. Everywhere is written, that you have a moral obligation (sometimes even a legal one) to disclose infections to your partner. Why is it different with CMV? Herpes is also widespread, nevertheless a carrier is supposed to disclose it. And is it really fair to knowingly expose somebody to an incurable infection with a possibility of serious outcomes without letting them know? If somebody did it to me, I would be furious! In the country I am now only 60-70% of people have it, so there is a realistic posibility that I can meet someone who doesn´t. Actually I made my decision to be celibate with respect to sexual intercourse even before the test, but I would still like to have a possibility to interact with a person in other ways without fretting about infecting them. What if I sneeze at him or he drinks from my glass (I never do it myself and never did). I read a story where a woman got a disabled child by drinking from one glass some time in her pregnancy with a friend who was a carrier. Shall I take special precautions around pregnant women? How contagious it is? As far as I understood your post, I shall not disclose it to anyone?
Regards, LaGattaNera
There is one thing I don´t really get. Everywhere is written, that you have a moral obligation (sometimes even a legal one) to disclose infections to your partner. Why is it different with CMV? Herpes is also widespread, nevertheless a carrier is supposed to disclose it. And is it really fair to knowingly expose somebody to an incurable infection with a possibility of serious outcomes without letting them know? If somebody did it to me, I would be furious! In the country I am now only 60-70% of people have it, so there is a realistic posibility that I can meet someone who doesn´t. Actually I made my decision to be celibate with respect to sexual intercourse even before the test, but I would still like to have a possibility to interact with a person in other ways without fretting about infecting them. What if I sneeze at him or he drinks from my glass (I never do it myself and never did). I read a story where a woman got a disabled child by drinking from one glass some time in her pregnancy with a friend who was a carrier. Shall I take special precautions around pregnant women? How contagious it is? As far as I understood your post, I shall not disclose it to anyone?
Regards, LaGattaNera
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome back to the forum.
The question is why you were tested for CMV to begin with. It's a universal infection; all humans catch it, and once they have it, they all have positive tests for life. Although CMV can occasionally cause serious health problems, e.g. in persons with AIDS, cancer, or on chemotherapy, in other situations is is usually harmless. No real medical experts ever test outwardly healthy persons for CMV. From your previous posts, I believe you are in Russia -- and I also have to believe you have found a doctor or provider who is taking advantage of your fears and testing you in ways that are unnecessary, probably at substantial cost.
To your specific questions:
1,2) CMV is sexually transmissible, but not an STD in the usual sense; most infections are not acquired sexually. The virus is transmitted in several ways: congenitally, from infected mothers to infants in the womb; by saliva exchange in young children; by sex in young adults (mostly if they happened to escape childhood infection); and by blood exposure, e.g. through transfusion, shared needles for drug abuse, etc.
3) You cannot do anything to prevent infecting others, and do not need to. Any personal or sexual partner in your life probably already has CMV. Almost all adults humans have it.
4) It is a body-wide infection; the virus is in the blood, liver, spleen, bone marrow, and other organs.
5) There are no disclosure guidelines and none are necessary.
6) The exact sexual transmission mechanisms are not known. Probably intercourse, via semen and femal genital secretions; but also by saliva. All sexual activites are equally safe (or equally unsafe, it you want to look at it that way).
Probably there was no valid reason for you to be tested for CMV, and there is no reason for you to be concerned about your positive CMV test results. Please do your best to ignore them. They are meaningless with respect to your health or that of your current or future sex partners.
Regards-- HHH, MD
The question is why you were tested for CMV to begin with. It's a universal infection; all humans catch it, and once they have it, they all have positive tests for life. Although CMV can occasionally cause serious health problems, e.g. in persons with AIDS, cancer, or on chemotherapy, in other situations is is usually harmless. No real medical experts ever test outwardly healthy persons for CMV. From your previous posts, I believe you are in Russia -- and I also have to believe you have found a doctor or provider who is taking advantage of your fears and testing you in ways that are unnecessary, probably at substantial cost.
To your specific questions:
1,2) CMV is sexually transmissible, but not an STD in the usual sense; most infections are not acquired sexually. The virus is transmitted in several ways: congenitally, from infected mothers to infants in the womb; by saliva exchange in young children; by sex in young adults (mostly if they happened to escape childhood infection); and by blood exposure, e.g. through transfusion, shared needles for drug abuse, etc.
3) You cannot do anything to prevent infecting others, and do not need to. Any personal or sexual partner in your life probably already has CMV. Almost all adults humans have it.
4) It is a body-wide infection; the virus is in the blood, liver, spleen, bone marrow, and other organs.
5) There are no disclosure guidelines and none are necessary.
6) The exact sexual transmission mechanisms are not known. Probably intercourse, via semen and femal genital secretions; but also by saliva. All sexual activites are equally safe (or equally unsafe, it you want to look at it that way).
Probably there was no valid reason for you to be tested for CMV, and there is no reason for you to be concerned about your positive CMV test results. Please do your best to ignore them. They are meaningless with respect to your health or that of your current or future sex partners.
Regards-- HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
