[AdmSmith]

Each year, about 40,000 children are born infected with human cytomegalovirus, or CMV, and about 8,000 of these children suffer permanent disabilities due to the virus — almost one an hour. These disabilities can include hearing loss, vision loss, mental disability, a lack of coordination, and seizures. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CMV is as common a cause of serious disability as Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, or neural tube defects.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/08/060803091847.htm

A previous experimental immunization known as the Towne CMV vaccine did not prevent immune-compromised kidney-transplant patients from becoming infected with the virus, but it did keep them from developing symptoms, according to a 1984 study published in The Lancet. CMV subverts the machinery humans use to mount an immune response against viruses. It also uses some of that machinery, such as infection-fighting white blood cells, to spread itself throughout the body. Once a person has a virus, he or she typically develops antibodies against it and will not become infected again. But it appears that having CMV does not make a person immune to future infections — another reason skeptics doubt a vaccine could accomplish such a feat, either

Other companies, including Novartis and Vical, have their own vaccine candidates in development, and GSK completed a phase 1 safety trial of another vaccine, but has yet to release the results.

Pascal Barollier, a Sanofi-Pasteur spokesperson, says the company is reworking the vaccine, possibly with a different antigen (a substance that stimulates the body's immune system to make disease-fighting antibodies against a germ) or adjuvant, and will need to test the new formulation in the lab before trying it out on people. “The study is suggestive that prevention of maternal CMV infection is an achievable goal,” Barollier said. “Sanofi Pasteur is committed to bringing such a vaccine to market as soon as possible to respond to an unmet medical need.”

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=cmv-vaccine-shows-promise-2009-03-18

here are some studies http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=CMV

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links. The herpes family is quite interesting. My wife and I both had shingles. My sisters two sons had chicken pox twice each. They had it well before the vaccine arrived.