Quote Originally Posted by piperdbh View Post
One of my students came to school the other day and said her little brother has parvo. Is that possible?
Although commonly thought of as a deadly disease in dogs (our dog had it as an 8 wk old pup and survived----$4000 medical treatments later) there is a variant that is a human disease, entirely separate from but in many ways similar to the canine version. Typically strikes infants with a characteristic rash and some other systemic symptoms but is rarely lethal. Has the potential for shutting down the bone marrow causing anemia and immunosuppression so not good for heme/onc patients or others on immunosuppression for transplants, etc.... Also can be nasty if acquired during pregnancy causing profound anemia in the fetus, among other things, and a moderately high morbidity via miscarriage. Good news is that in infants it is generally a self limited if unpleasant disease, and in most adults asymptomatic or minimally discomforting, and once infected carries a generally lifetime immunity. Other problem is that survivors can shed the virus for many months after initial infection, without knowing it-----so good handwashing is always a recommendation to get in the habit of.

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