Transmission or recurrence? A historical dilemma of iatrogenic infections due to cytomegalovirus.

This article traces the changes in thought regarding the etiology of iatrogenic infections due to cytomegalovirus from the 1960s to the 1990s. Initial investigations using serologic and culture methods focused on how the virus was acquired. Following the application of molecular tools, theories on disease causality expanded beyond concerns of the microorganism itself to include aspects of the virus-host interaction and the host response.

[Interpreting cellular inclusions: a contribution to the history of virology].

In the middle of the 19th century cell inclusions were observed with increasing frequency in more and more diseases and were closely scrutinized by researchers working in different fields. Because of their distinct viewpoints, however, the various authors came inevitably to different conclusions. The morphologists interpreted the inclusions as artefacts or degenerative changes, the etiologists, on the other hand, took them for pathogenic protozoa, for cellular lesions inflicted by invisible agents or, conversely - for aggregated products of the cellular defense.

[Solving the mystery of cellular inclusions. A contribution to the history of virology].

In the middle of the 19th century cell inclusions were observed with increasing frequency in more and more diseases and were closely scrutinized by researchers working in different fields. Because of their distinct viewpoints, however, the various authors came inevitably to different conclusions. The morphologists interpreted the inclusions as artefacts or degenerative changes, the etiologists, on the other hand, took them for pathogenic protozoa, for cellular lesions inflicted by invisible agents or, conversely--for aggregated products of the cellular defense.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) in cervical secretion and breast milk. A thirty years perspective.

During the past 30 years prospective epidemiologic studies have clearly established that infants commonly acquire CMV infection in the immediate perinatal or early postnatal period. CMV reaches the offspring with uterine cervical secretions during the birth process and/or with maternal milk during the breast-feeding period, usually resulting in asymptomatic infection in full-term infants. In young women cervical shedding of CMV may reflect a pelvic inflammatory disease and involves the risk of sexual transmission.