Awareness and knowledge of congenital cytomegalovirus infection among health care providers in France

BackgroundCytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most frequent cause of congenital virus infection. CMV infects approximately 1% of newborns at birth with severe consequences among 10% of them and antenatal and postnatal treatments, although promising, are still under evaluation in randomised control trials. Efficacy of hygienic counselling to prevent CMV infection is nowadays established and should be spread.ObjectiveTo evaluate health care providers’ awareness of CMV infection during pregnancy in France.Study designA questionnaire on CMV infection was sent by e-mail to obstetricians, paediatricians, midwives and laboratory physicians, members of medical or midwives association. We evaluated their knowledge concerning CMV epidemiology, transmission, symptoms in adults, newborns and children.ResultsThe questionnaire was completed by 800 respondents (half midwives and one third obstetricians). Most of them were unaware of the precise transmission route of CMV. Laboratory physicians had the highest score concerning maternal symptoms and post natal long term effects. 20% of respondents were wrongly convinced that in utero treatment options for congenital CMV infection were already available in France at the time of the study. The mean knowledge scores regarding transmission and neonatal symptoms increased with a more advanced career stage (i.e. older age) among obstetrician.ConclusionsThis study tends to confirm that there is a large gap between knowledge of CMV during pregnancy and the burden of this disease. To bridge this gap, health care providers should improve their knowledge about congenital CMV by various means: medical reviews, continuing medical education, meetings, conferences, the Internet.