The Hidden Organ Transplant Threat — CMV — Dr. Neil Inhaber, MD, FRCPC — Head, Marketed Products and Neuroscience, Global Medical Affairs, Takeda.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world receive life-saving organ transplants — new hearts, kidneys, lungs, and livers that offer patients a second chance at life.

But transplantation is only the beginning of the journey.

Because preventing organ rejection requires suppressing the immune system, transplant recipients become vulnerable to infections that most healthy people never even notice.

One of the most important — and least understood — is cytomegalovirus, or CMV.

More than half of adults worldwide carry this virus, often for life, without ever knowing it. Yet in patients who have undergone organ transplantation, CMV can reactivate and become one of the leading infectious complications, threatening not only a patient’s health, but also the long-term success of the transplanted organ itself.

Fortunately, advances in virology, immunology, and antiviral drug development are opening new possibilities for managing this complex disease.

My guest today is Dr. Neil Inhaber, MD — Head, Marketed Products and Neuroscience, Global Medical Affairs at Takeda (https://www.takeda.com/).