Fifth Disease and Your Child: What You Should Know

One day a few weeks ago, my daughter came into my living room with a bright red rash on her cheeks. The rash was blotchy, with what appeared to be small bumps, sort of resembling what hives can look like. I had let her try a soy product a few days prior, so my first thought was this was a food allergy. I was way off.
Over the next few days, the rash lessened on her face and moved down to her arms, appearing in different places all over. Then, while in a car ride to a relative's house on a hot day, from the backseat she said, "Mom!! Look at my legs!! What's wrong with me?" I looked down and saw that both of her entire legs looked like someone had just laid a bright red lacy net over them. So the rash had completely changed, there were no bumps on her legs as there were in the beginning on her face. As a Mother, this scared me to death. My daughter had never had hives, neither had I, but I knew this wasn't it. I found out a day later it was Fifth Disease, a strange virus that has been floating around my town, infecting children everywhere.

Fifth Disease is not actually a "disease", but is instead, a virus, which spreads through the air and through fluids (saliva and mucus). It is another name for the parovirus B19. Children who are infected start out by having a slight fever, which can go easily unnoticed, especially during the summer when they play a lot outside. One could just easily assume they are "hot" from the sun and heat. They will most likely also experience slight cold-like symptoms, which can also go easily unnoticed, especially if your child has common allergies. This is the first stage of the virus, and the window of time that the child is contagious.

A red "lacy" rash is a major symptom of Fifth Disease.

Credit: DermNet.com

Copyright: DermNet.com