The world has been threatened by the Zika epidemic spreading through the Americas, which has affected more than 2,000 infants with severe health damage. But cytomegalovirus or CMV is a far greater viral threat for pregnant women and their infants.

According to the New York Times report, every year 20,000 to 40,000 infants are born with CMV. At least 20 percent have suffered from permanent disabilities such as hearing loss, microcephaly, intellectual deficits and vision abnormalities. Till now there is no proper vaccine or treatment has been discovered.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a most common congenital virus that leads non-genetic cause of deafness in children. 400 children die from it annually. On the other hand, Zika virus has affected roughly 900 hundred pregnant women in the continental United States, reported by New York Times.

Cytomegalovirus should be every bit as an urgent priority as Zika. The director of the University Of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Mark R Schleiss said, Health officials called for a CMV vaccine decades ago, and there still isn't one, partly because of the lack of public awareness about CMV".

According to Federal Survey, few women are warned about this infection. Less than half of obstetrician- gynecologists tell pregnant patients how to avoid CMV infection.

The researchers realized that awareness is the important part; at least the women working in day care and women with toddlers can potentially modify some behavior to protect from CMV virus.

Some experts are pushing for routine screening of newborns for CMV. The idea is to identify those who are infected in the first 21 days so that they can be given regular hearing tests, eye tests, magnetic resonance test ,and perhaps antiviral treatment.

Meanwhile, pregnant women don't worry about CMV only because due to the lack of awareness, some researchers say. They argue that it is high time to carry out campaigns and infant screening education for the infection, arguing that it smacks of paternalism to do otherwise.

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