Search for Perinatal Viral Infection

Abstract

SEVERE and often fatal neonatal illnesses due to coxsackievirus B have been frequently reported.^1-3Less emphasized, but also noted, have been mild neonatal illnesses due to coxsackievirus and other enteroviruses.^1,2,4,5Although at birth the newborn has no microbiologic flora of its own, it acquires a bacterial flora shortly thereafter.⁶This normal phenomenon has been well studied,⁶as has the acquisition of pathologic bacterial flora.^7,8However, there have been relatively few studies investigating the "normal viral inhabitants" of the newborn and the mother at parturition.^9-11With the possible exception of the cytomegaloviruses¹²and adenoviruses^13,14recovered from tonsils and adenoids, it is generally felt that there is no normal upper respiratory viral flora in the human. However, both children and adults are apparently being continually infected by the ororespiratory route with a multitude of different viruses.^3,15 Because of the relative paucity of data