Parvovirus B19 (B19V) is a single-stranded DNA virus of the family Parvoviridae and genus Erythrovirus. It causes erythema infectiosum or fifth disease of childhood in immunocompetent older children and can also infect seronegative (non immune) pregnant women. Althoughause disease in animals, it was only in 1975 that the first human pathogen of this family was
discovered by Cossart and colleagues while screening normal blood bank donors’ sera for the hepatitis antigen (one of the donors’ serum samples was coded B19).
It causes spontaneous abortion ,still birth, hydops fetalis , congenital anemia.Parvovirus B19 has a particular tropism for erythroid cells and the diagnostic viral inclusions can be seen in early erythroid progenitors in infected infants.
Bone marrow aspiration smear shows normal granulopoiesis and megakaryopoiesis, but reduced erythropoiesis. Giant proerythroblasts with basophilic and vacuolated cytoplasm, uncondensed chromatin, and large, intranuclear, purple-colored viral inclusions are present on the aspirate
