Khalifa called yesterday for his latest update. Abdulwahab's progress continues to be very slow. His bone marrow is working and producing red blood cells and his Hb, without any recent transfusion was around 9.6.
His muscles are still very weak but slowly recovering. The main concern is the CMV (Cytomegalovirus) virus that is still very active in his system. Until this is brought under control, he will remain in hospital. In people with weakened immune systems, as is the case after a bone marrow transplant, this can be a very serious problem.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000663.htmCytomegalovirus, also known as CMV, is a virus. Most humans are exposed to this virus in their lifetime, but typically only individuals with weakened immune systems become ill from CMV infection...Infections can include: CMV pneumonia, CMV gastroenteritis, CMV retinitis, and CMV encephalitis, and a mononucleosis-like illness.
Once a person becomes infected, the virus remains alive, but usually dormant, within that person's body for life. Rarely does it cause recurrent disease, unless the person's immune system is suppressed due to therapeutic drugs or disease. Therefore, for the vast majority of people, CMV infection is not a serious problem...The objective of treatment is to stop the replication of the virus within the body through the use of antiviral agents. These drugs DO NOT eliminate the virus from the body -- they only keep it from dividing.
The most commonly used drugs are ganciclovir, valganciclovir, foscarnet, and cidofovir. These are used in patients in whom CMV disease is established throughout the body.
Khalifa would like to know if there are any other known treatments for CMV. If anyone knows of any other treatments, please let us know.