PEDIATRICS · 1972 · 24 citations · 0 references
MedicineDermatologyInfectious DiseasesMedical MicrobiologyPediatric DermatologyVirologyAcute Infectious LesionsInfectious DermatosesSkin InfectionsViral DiagnosticsViral ExanthemsViral InfectionsEchovirus InfectionsErythema InfectiosumExanthematous Viral InfectionsPediatric Viral InfectionsSkin ErythemaViral Disease Diagnosis
A virologic study was conducted on specimens from 102 patients with erythema infectiosum (fifth disease). A laboratory diagnosis of acute rubella was made in 10 children (9.8%) and evidence of echovirus-12 infection was found in four others (3.8%). Clinically, these 14 children were indistinguishable from the 88 virus-negative patients. The data are consistent with two interpretations: (1) 14 of 102 (14%) erythema infectiosum patients in the present investigation had dual infections or (2) a strain of rubella or echovirus-12 may produce an exanthem resembling erythema infectiosum in some individuals. Preliminary challenge experiments with a rubella virus isolated from one of the study patients suggested that this agent produced an illness in adult volunteers similar to erythema infectiosum.