B19 Research Paper

Most pregnant women infected with B19 are asymptomatic, but some do experience symptoms, such as exanthema and arthralgia (Komischke et al., 1997) .
Death of the fetus usually occurs 4–6 weeks post-infection, but in case of symptomatic B19 infection, fetal death has been reported up to 12 weeks after infection (Hedrick, 1996) .

Immunocompromised patients and chronic B19 infection

Immunocompromised patients are particularly at risk of B19 infection, such as patients with AIDS, cancer patients who are subjected to chemotherapy, and organ transplant patients receiving immunosuppressive drugs. (Young, 1996)

Many immunocompromised patients are not capable of producing neutralizing antibodies to eliminate or clear the virus and this can result in persistent or chronic infection and consequently lead to anemia (Kurtzman et al., 1989a; Young, 1996) ̓ .
TAC associated with B19 infection may occur in patients with chronic haemolytic disorders, e.g, hereditary spherocytosis (Beland et al., 1997) .

In 1981, scientists discovered that TAC is caused by B19 infection in children with sickle-cell anaemia (Serjeant et al., 1981) .
Parvovirus B19 start by invasion of red blood cell precursors in the bone marrow and destroys these precursors and stop the production of red blood cells.
If infection occurs in individuals with sickle cell anemia or hereditary spherocytosis, consequently the patient will suffer from 2 anemia-induced mechanisms: hemolysis and decreased red cell production ,The result is a severe anemia (aplastic crisis) and the patient may require blood