What is CMV (Cytomegalovirus)?
CMV is an infections of the family herpes that can cause the disease in patients with low immune activity, have no symptoms in healthy people, and cause severe diseases in patients who undergo organ transplantation and infants.
What are the manifestations of acute CMV infection?
An acute CMV infection in the eye case may be characterized by fatigue, fever, sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, pains in the muscles and sometimes jaundice or vision modifications.
What does positive CMV IgG test look like?
The positive CMV IgG indicates that because of the previous infection, it indicates that you have been infected by CMV and is accompanied by the positive CMV IgM indicating that you are either currently infected or actively infected. A virus load is capable of monitoring the available virus activity.
Is CMV contagious?
Yes. Before any symptoms are felt, CMV enters into the body via close contacts with body fluids like saliva, blood, urine, breast milk, and organ transplants or sex most of the time.
Who runs the risk of severe CMV complications?
The individuals at the greatest risk of developing severe complications of CMV include the people with HIV, cancer patients, patients undergoing immunosuppressive therapy as soon as organ transplant, and infants.
Can CMV affect the liver?
Yes. CMV may also lead to inflammation of the liver and jaundice especially in patients with immunocompromised conditions and infants and may end up in the administration of antiviral drug and frequent monitoring.
GastroDoxs in Houston does not do anything to CMV.
CMV management at GastroDoxs involves the use of antiviral drugs such as ganciclovir or valganciclovir, frequent blood tests to check the level of IgG, IgM, and viral load and supportive care to cushion the affected body parts.
In which situations must a CMV specialist be invited in Houston?
To avoid complications, the CMV specialist must be contacted in the case of persistent fever, swollen lymph nodes, weak conditions, known exposure, or known CMV test result.
Is there a way to prevent CMV infection?
Yes. Safe sex-safe hygiene (washing hands often, not sharing of utensils and drinks) and good hygiene (washing hands often) can help to reduce the transmission of CMV considerably.
What is the duration to recover CMV?
The recovery will be facilitated by the condition: healthy people can usually recover within several weeks, and immunodefited patients may be required to be placed under antiviral treatment and under close monitoring.
Medically Reviewed by
Dr. Bharat Pothuri, MD, FACG
| Updated 03-17-2026