Other cases of GBS and parvovirus

Anonymous
March 28, 2009 at 7:57 pm

I did a PubMed search for Guillain Barre and parvovirus and there are two case reports of people with GBS after parvovirus B19. One is in Japanese and was about an adult although the abstract is in English. The other article is in English, from a different group of Japanese doctors, and discusses a 4 year old boy with GBS starting 11 days after the start of erythema infectiosum. The infection caused by parvovirus B19 is called Fifth’s disease (because it was classically the fifth disease causing a characteristic rash in children) or erythema infectiosum (red infection). It is also called “slapped cheeks” because people often have fever for about 5 days and then get a very characteristic bright red cheek rash that makes them look like they have had their cheeks slapped. The second reference was by Y. Minohara et al and in Journal of Infections, vol 36, p 327-28 and published in 1998.

Since GBS is rare and is a disease with a wide range of ways to manifest in different people, each summary is based on the experiences of the authors–which differ. There are a lot of differences in what is presented. I would suggest first believing what is presented by the GBS/CIDP foundation and by the NIH. Both of these are more “up to date” than a textbook or even NORD. (at least what I have read from NORD).
WithHope