A virus common in newborn babies may increase their risk of developing autism, a study suggests.
By examining medical records of nearly 3million infants, researchers found those born with cytomegalovirus (CMV) were two-and-a-half times more likely to be diagnosed with autism in their lives than children without CMV.
This seemingly harmless cold-like bug affects roughly one in every 200 babies, and is the most common infection present at birth in the US.
Yet doctors don’t currently screen for the common virus, which is passed from pregnant women to their fetus in the womb.