About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffThe human parvovirus B19 causes parvovirus infection. This is different from the parvovirus seen in dogs and cats, so you can't get the infection from a pet or vice versa.
Human parvovirus infection is most common among elementary school-age children during outbreaks in the winter and spring months, but anyone can become ill with it anytime of the year. It spreads from person to person, just like a cold, often through respiratory secretions and hand-to-hand contact.
The illness is contagious in the week before the rash appears. Once the rash appears, the person with the illness is no longer considered contagious and doesn't need to be isolated.
- Fifth disease. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2010. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/166343766-3/906090993/2088/245.html#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05609-0..00015-0--s0880_5038. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Young NS. B19 parvovirus. In: Goldman L. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/166343766-3/906090993/1492/1323.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50399-2_16554. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Jordan JA. Clinical manifestations and pathogenesis of human parvovirus B19 infection. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Parvovirus B19 infection and erythema infectiosum. In: Cohen J, et al. Cohen & Powderly: Infectious Diseases. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2004. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/166343766-3/906090993/1209/25.html#4-u1.0-B0-323-02407-6..50010-6--cesec37_250. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Riley LE, et al. Parvovirus B19 infection during pregnancy. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Jordan JA. Treatment and prevention of parvovirus B19 infection. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
- Reye's syndrome information page. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/reyes_syndrome/reyes_syndrome.htm. Accessed Oct. 22, 2009.
Find Mayo Clinic on