What is TORCH?

Also known as: TORCH syndrome, TORCH infections.

TORCH (or TORCH syndrome) is the short term used to describe a group of diseases that are passed from mother to baby during pregnancy (congenital). The “letters” stand for:

• Toxoplasmosis,
• Other (such as syphilis, mumps, HIV, parvovirus, chickenpox virus and other viruses)
• Rubella
• Cytomegalovirus
• Herpes simplex

What causes TORCH?

TORCH occurs when a mother has or develops one of these infections and passes it through her blood stream to her unborn baby.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM