“We have unequivocally observed that CMV retinitis is causing blindness in a young population in developing countries, even though the full scope of the problem remains to be defined,” says an international team of 14 eye doctors, HIV specialists, and medical and humanitarian aid workers. Cytomegalovirus (CMV), a member of the herpesvirus family, was a familiar cause of blindness and death in patients with advanced AIDS in Western countries prior to the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). In the era before HAART, about 1/3 of patients with AIDS in the West suffered potentially blinding CMV retinitis.