Fifth Disease- A Slap On the Cheek

Fifth disease gets its name from the fact that before the days of vaccinations for most childhood ailments, it was the “fifth disease” that a child would come down with. Fifth disease is also called “slap cheek” or erythema infectiosum, and it is characterized by a sore throat, muscle pain, nasal congestion, and then a rash, a bright red one that makes it appear that the child has been slapped across the face. Primarily found in school aged children, from ages five to fifteen, fifth disease is viral in nature and has serious complications only in adults and some children, and even then in rare instances.

Most outbreaks of fifth disease happen in the winter and spring. The cause of fifth disease is a virus that was identified in 1975 as the culprit, human parvovirus B19, and it is thought to be spread through respiratory secretions from coughing and sneezing that become droplets in the air and are breathed in. Ten percent of children will find that they are immune to fifth’s disease, and half of the adults in this country have been exposed to the virus, although many never showed any symptoms afterwards. If you have fifth disease, you will be contagious before symptoms show up and until the telltale rash appears. It can take anywhere from four to seventeen days to start exhibiting symptoms of fifth disease once you acquire the infection from the virus, with the average incubation period being two weeks. Fifth disease is not serious in most kids, but eighty percent of the adults that contract it experience some joint pain that resembles the effects of arthritis, which can linger for weeks. When you have fifth disease and already suffer from arthritis, you will be stiff in the morning and have swelling and redness in the same joints on both sides of your body; in other words, both of your hands will swell, or both of your knees.