Prevention of viral infections during pregnancy

The viral infections that pose risks to mother and infant are summarized. From the foregoing one might conclude that the safest course would be to place all pregnant women in a laminar-flow biohazard cabinet or large plastic bag for the duration of pregnancy. This is patently ridiculous. The most important point is to be certain that women are immune to rubella before they become pregnant. If not, they should be vaccinated immediately postpartum. Awareness of genital herpes should help prevent neonatal herpes or lead to prompt antiviral therapy for the infected newborn. Recognition of hepatitis and varicella exposures should lead to appropriate passive immunization of susceptibles. The biggest unresolved problem is prevention of congenital CMV. CMV is at present the number-one cause of viral-induced psychomotor retardation. It is possible that live, attenuated CMV vaccine will be found effective in preventing CMV, but data to document this effectiveness will take years to accumulate.