'Slapped cheek' rash-causing virus on the rise among kids, CDC warns
Doctors should be alert to symptoms of parvovirus, or Fifth disease, the CDC says. Pregnant women are at high risk from the virus, which can lead to fetal death.
Abby Parks had never heard of parvovirus when she began feeling flu-like symptoms in late April, followed by joint pain and a rash. Parks, 27, a special education teacher in Springfield, Illinois, was about 18 weeks pregnant and had been feeling very sick with a fever for days, but tests for Covid and strep came back negative.
The school nurse, who had been seeing students with “really rosy, red cheeks,” suggested Parks might have the same infection.
“I got progressively sicker,” she said. “I was in bed with a fever for four or five full days.”
When blood tests given by her OB-GYN came back positive for parvovirus B19 in early May, she was referred to a maternal fetal medicine specialist. The doctor discovered the virus had passed to the fetus in utero. The fetus had developed anemia, a very dangerous condition. Doctors gave the fetus a blood transfusion in utero.
Abby Parks in the hospital during one of the fetal blood transfusions.Courtesy Abby ParksCases of parvovirus B19 — more commonly known as Fifth disease or “slapped cheek syndrome” because of the red rash that covers an infected patient’s face — are rising in the U.S. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert to doctors to watch for signs of the highly contagious seasonal virus.
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