Congenital HHV-6 Infection: What Are the Neurodevelopmental Effects?

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6), closely related to cytomegalovirus (CMV), infects most children in early childhood. Infection can be asymptomatic or can cause a nonspecific febrile illness or roseola infantum. Infection is associated with febrile seizures and can cause encephalitis in immunocompromised children. Like other herpesviruses, HHV-6 remains latent following primary infection and can become integrated into the genome. Integrated virus can be transmitted via the germline from parent to child. Less frequently, transmission occurs transplacentally.

To determine neurodevelopmental effects of congenital HHV-6 infection, researchers compared 39 infants diagnosed by cord blood testing (1% of cord blood samples tested) and 199 HHV-6- and CMV-…