Research Article Knowledge of Human Cytomegalovirus Infection and Prevention in Pregnant Women: A Baseline, Operational Survey Maria Mazzitelli, 1 Mariella Micieli, 2 Carmela Votino, 2 Federica Visconti, 2 Paola Quaresima, 2 Alessio Strazzulla, 1 Carlo Torti, 1 and Fulvio Zullo 2 1 Unit of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy 2 Unit of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, “Magna Graecia” University of Catanzaro, Viale Europa, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to Maria Mazzitelli; m.mazzitelli88@gmail.com Received 13 February 2017; Revised 27 May 2017; Accepted 20 June 2017; Published 31 July 2017 Academic Editor: Bryan Larsen Copyright © 2017 Maria Mazzitelli et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Currently, the only efcient way to prevent human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection in pregnancy is primary prophylaxis through hygienic measures. So, we evaluated knowledge of HCMV and its prevention in a group of pregnant women. An anonymous questionnaire with multiple-choice answers was administered to all pregnant women who were followed up at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Unit of “Pugliese-Ciaccio Hospital,” a third-level hospital in Catanzaro (Southern Italy), from November 2015 to March 2016. Previously prescribed serology results for HCMV were also evaluated. Tree hundred and ffy women participated in the study and the results clearly demonstrated that knowledge of pregnant women about HCMV is poor. Moreover, prescribed screening procedures need to be optimized, since one out of three pregnant women has not been tested for HCMV or the screening was not performed adequately. For this reason, it is important to implement informative campaign in both pregnant women and providing physicians. 1. Background Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major cause of intrauterine and congenital infection [1]. As a consequence of a primary infection during pregnancy, newborns may be afected by several conditions, such as hearing loss, mental retardation, and motor and cognitive impairment [2, 3]. Te most dangerous consequences for the newborns occur when the mother is primarily infected in the earlier period of pregnancy. Moreover, the majority of infections occur in the frst trimester. Available data show that main ways of transmission are contact with children or sexual activity [4]. Since a vaccine is not actually available to avoid primary infection, prevention through hygienic measures is the only way to prevent infections. Tese include mainly avoiding strict contacts with children (in particular their saliva or urine) and washing hands accurately afer this kind of contacts [5]. With this objective in mind, screening to identify seronegative women at risk and counselling of these women are fundamental. Indeed, a recent randomized study demon- strated that the aforementioned measures signifcantly pre- vented maternal infections and negative consequences for the newborns [6]. Trough a questionnaire-based survey, we aimed at assessing level of knowledge of HCMV infection and its consequences and prevention in pregnant women in order to estimate the need of information campaigns, with the fnal aim of reducing primary infections in pregnancy. 2. Population and Methods Tis study was conducted through a questionnaire adminis- trated to all pregnant women who were followed up at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Unit of “Pugliese-Ciaccio Hos- pital,” a third-level public hospital in Catanzaro (Southern Italy), from November 2015 to March 2016. Patients were asked, through expression of verbal con- sent, to participate in the study at their frst consultation in our outpatient clinic. Afer medical consult, they could refuse Hindawi Infectious Diseases in Obstetrics and Gynecology Volume 2017, Article ID 5495927, 5 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/5495927