Cerebral palsy and perinatal exposure to neurotropic viruses
BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7533.63 (Published 12 January 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:63- Eva Alberman, professor emeritus of clinical epidemiology (kenevalb@aol.com),
- Catherine Peckham, professor of paediatric epidemiology
- Centre for Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London EC1M 6BQ
- Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Child Health, London WC1N 1EH
Cerebral palsy, one of the most common causes of serious long term disability, is a term covering the conditions found to have “non-progressive but often changing motor impairments secondary to lesions or anomalies of the brain arising during early development.”1 The final irreversible neurological damage frequently results from a causal pathway created by the joint effects of several factors including genetic constitution, fetal infection, preterm birth, and problems during delivery. The role of postnatal infection, such as catastrophic meningitis or encephalitis in infancy or early childhood, is usually clear, but the part played by infection in congenital or neonatal cerebral palsy is more complex and needs more investigation.2 A case-control study in this issue (p 76), reporting the prevalence of neurotropic viral nucleic acids in blood spots from routine neonatal screening, if confirmed, may take us a …
Log in
Log in using your username and password
Log in through your institution
Subscribe from £173 *
Subscribe and get access to all BMJ articles, and much more.
* For online subscription
Access this article for 1 day for:
£38 / $45 / €42 (excludes VAT)
You can download a PDF version for your personal record.