Many years ago, when there are too few medical advances, almost all children suffer from a certain group of diseases. These diseases were lumped together in one group because all of them produce rashes in the child. All of them are highly contagious, too
This group of childhood diseases is composed of measles, rubella, scarlet fever, Dukes’ disease, and parvovirus infection. Since the parvovirus infection is the fifth one identified, it earned the name “fifth disease”.
The fifth disease is characterized by a mild rash that appears on the face of the child. The child infected by the human parvovirus will look as if he has been soundly slapped. Thus, doctors listed the “slapped-cheek” rash as the major symptom of the parvovirus infection.
Rashes may also appear on the body, hands, and legs of the child. Sometimes, the rashes will be annoyingly itchy. But sometimes, the rashes may be mild enough that the child will not have the urge to scratch them. Most of the time, the child has a low fever, but not too weakened by the illness.
The fifth disease is caused by the human parvovirus, which is also referred to as the parvovirus B19. There are also other types of parvovirus, such as the canine parvovirus. The comforting fact is that a child cannot fall ill when exposed to canine parvovirus. That is, the other types of parvovirus cannot make the child sick. Only the human parvovirus can manage to tilt the health of the child.
The incubation of the parvovirus is between four to fourteen days, depending on the health of a person or child. That is, a relatively weak person may show the symptoms of parvovirus infection four days after the virus has entered his body. A relatively healthy person, after exposure to parvovirus, may show the symptoms two weeks later.
Although the parvovirus infection is considered a childhood disease, adults can also fall victim to this illness. Most probably, these adults never had a parvovirus infection before and their bodies have not developed immunity. When adults are infected with the parvovirus, their bone joints suffer the worst. These joints are the ones found on the hands, wrist, and knees. These joints become inflamed. Moving them will be excruciatingly painful.
Sometimes, the swelling disappears after a couple of weeks. But some cases of adult parvovirus infection have reported that the swelling of the joints has lasted for several months.