Pregnant Women Should Be Cautious About Handling Rodents.(Brief Article)

2001 SEP 6 - (NewsRx Network) -- Pregnant women should be cautious about contact with pet hamsters or wild or laboratory mice, suggest study findings.

Leslie Barton, MD, professor of Pediatrics and pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Arizona, along with colleagues around the world, have reported that when pregnant women come in contact with rodents carrying a disease called lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), it can damage the developing fetus.

"When a healthy adult or pregnant woman contracts LCMV, it may be completely asymptomatic or it may manifest as a mild flu," Barton says. "The real risk with this infection is in the transmission to the unborn baby."

To date, more than 49 infants worldwide have been diagnosed with LCMV. Barton has diagnosed three cases of congenital LCMV in Arizona. In one instance, twin girls were born to a mother who unknowingly contracted LCMV during pregnancy. One girl has vision problems; the other is severely developmentally delayed and has seizures.

"These are isolated cases," Barton says, "and certainly not every mouse or hamster carries this virus. But pregnant women deserve to have this information to avoid unnecessary risks during pregnancy."

More than 90% of the babies who have been identified as contracting the LCMV virus in utero had adverse outcomes, with vision problems being the most common. Within one group of 38 infants Barton studied, 84% had neurological problems such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, seizures, as well as decreased visual acuity.

Mice and hamsters are the primary sources of LCMV infections. Humans acquire this virus by direct contact with infected rodents or by inhaling ...