Study links virus to frailty in elderly

BALTIMORE, Jun 09, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A new U.S. study finds that women infected with chronic cytomegalovirus are more likely to become frail as they age.

The findings reported in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society were the first to link an infection in early life with problems in old age. The frail elderly are more likely to be injured and hospitalized and have a higher death rate.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health surveyed 700 women between the ages of 70 and 79. They found that those infected with CMV were more than three times as likely to be frail.

The study also found that women with CMV who had high levels of interleukin 6, a marker for inflammation, were even more likely to exhibit frailty.

CMV is a common infection in adults and usually shows no symptoms in the healthy.