Cytomegalovirus Disease: Can it be Prevented? CYTOMEGALOVIRUS IS A major pathogen in immuno-

suppressed patients (1) and newborn infants (2). Effec-tive treatment for cytomegalovirus disease has yet to be found. A placebo-controlled study of intravenous acyclo-vir therapy in 16 immunocompromised patients with ac-quired cytomegalovirus disease suggested the efficacy of this treatment (3) , but this trial must be extended and confirmed before acyclovir can be classified as an anti-cytomegalovirus drug. Thomas and associates (4) report-ed that transfer factor was associated with decreased viral shedding in three congenitally infected infants but could not confirm their preliminary observations in a double-blind trial (5). Encouraged by finding that transfer factor injections were followed by acquisition of cytomegalovi-rus-specific lymphocyte proliferative responses in 8 of 11 infected infants ( G E H R Z RC, LINNER KM, RUTZIC