Congenital Cytomegalovirus screening in newborns: Current status in the United States

Abstract

Targeted hearing screening for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) with CMV polymerase chain reaction testing completed before 3 weeks of age for infants who fail newborn hearing screening is a reasonable option to improve cCMV related non-genetic sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL). Universal cCMV screening using dried blood spots that is used on almost newborn infants has the potential to benefit those children at risk for SNHL and will be a great public health option.