Is there cytomegalovirus in mothers breastmilk and does it cause infection in very premature babies? [ 2002 - 2004 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Prof Colin Morley (Principal investigator) ,  Prof Nigel Curtis ,  Prof Sepehr Tabrizi ,  Prof Suzanne Garland

Brief description The hypothesis behind this study is that some very premature infants become infected with cytomegalovirus (CMV) from their mother's breast milk. This proposal is for a study of 200 CMV antibody positive mothers who are expressing breast milk for their very premature infants. We believe this is likely to be about 50% of all mothers. It has been well established that some full term infants are infected with CMV from their mother's breastmilk. The question now is do very premature infants with poor immunity develop serious infections from cytomegalovirus. This project has the overall aim of determining what proportion of very premature infants become ill with CMV excreted in their mother's breast milk, and then determining the nature and severity of those illnesses. It will also define how many mothers of premature infants are excreting CMV in their breast milk, the time this starts after birth, the viral load transmitted to the infant, the age after birth when the infants first become infected, the proportion who become ill with the infection, the details of the diseases and whether freezing breast milk kills the CMV.

Funding Amount $AUD 235,970.00

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant