ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment of congenital infections affecting the central nervous system. In the early 1970s physician scientists at Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention introduced the unifying concept of TORCH-an acronym that refers to Toxoplasma gondii, Rubella, Cytomegalovirus, and Herpes simplex virus, potential causes of human congenital infection. Although improved laboratory methods have supplanted the original TORCH titers and new pathogens have been added to the list of causes, TORCH remains a useful paradigm, emphasizing that these agents, when acquired in utero, produce similar clinical manifestations in infected infants.
EPIDEMIOLOGY
