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Purpose

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is an important cause of permanent hearing loss in children. Detection of congenital CMV infection allows early identification of infants at risk of hearing loss. The study objective is to determine if universal screening of newborns for CMV is a useful adjunct to universal hearing screening.

Methods

Between 3/8/04 and 8/29/04, infants born at four Utah hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley were screened for congenital CMV infection by cell culture assay of saliva. Each sample was run in duplicate. The population sampled corresponded to 31%(1555/5090) of the infants born at the hospitals during the study interval. Concurrently, all infants underwent hearing assessment. Normal newborn nurseries used otoacoustic emission (OAE) screening, whereas Newborn Intensive Care Units used OAE or automated auditory brainstem evoked response (AABR) audiometry for initial …