Cytomegalovirus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Cytomegalovirus |
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|---|---|
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| CMV infection of a lung pneumocyte. | |
| Virus classification | |
| Group: |
Group I (dsDNA)
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| Family: |
Herpesviridae
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| Subfamily: |
Betaherpesvirinae
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| Genus: |
Cytomegalovirus
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| Species | |
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see text |
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Cytomegalovirus (which means "Large Cell", when translated from Greek cyto-, "cell", and -megalo-, "large") is a Virus which people get. It's a Herpesvirus and is usually called HCMV (Human Cytomegalovirus) or Human Herpesvirus 5 (HHV-5).
As with all herpesviruses, even without symptoms, the virus can still be in a person for long periods of time, even for life.
Two out of five people in the world have HCMV. More people in developed countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have the condition. In these places, more than half of people have the condition.
There is no treatment or cure, but scientists in the United States are developing vaccines, but none has proven to work fully yet.
Images for kids
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Class E genome of HCMV. The unique long and unique short regions are indicated as UL and US. Repeat regions are indicated as a, b and c sequences, where primes designate inverted orientations. Sequences ab and b′a′ correspond to the terminal/internal repeat long (TRL/IRL); sequences a′c′ and ca correspond to the internal/terminal repeat short (IRS/TRS). Top: typical genome arrangement of wild-type strains; bottom: genome arrangement of strain AD169, a laboratory-adapted strain. Genome rearrangements that have occurred during extensive passaging are indicated in red between the wild-type and laboratory-adapted configurations.
See also
In Spanish: Citomegalovirus para niños
