A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A new respiratory virus is on the rise. It's called parvovirus, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently put out a health alert. NPR's Pien Huang joins us now to tell us all about it. Pien, so parvovirus sounds like a dog thing. Why should people be worried about it?
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: It does sound like a dog thing, and there is a version that affects dogs. People might vaccinate their pets against it. But I do want to be clear that this is a different parvovirus. So humans can't get parvovirus from dogs, but there is a human version. It's in the same family, but it's a different virus. And the one that health officials are worried about right now is a strain called parvovirus B19. It's super contagious. It spreads from person to person, mostly through sneezing and coughing - basically, respiratory droplets.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, sounds yucky. So what are the symptoms if you catch it?
HUANG: Well, A, it's actually a pretty common childhood infection. About half of the people in the U.S. have gotten it and recovered by the age of 20. I spoke with Dr. Jeffrey Starke. He's a specialist in infectious diseases at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. And he says that in many cases, people who get it have no symptoms or very mild ones.
JEFFREY STARKE: It really just starts out with fever - fever, fever, fever - for several days. So there's nothing particularly distinct about the illness. And then often after a few days is when the child really starts to break out into a rash.
HUANG: And that rash is what gives it its nickname. It's called slapped-cheek syndrome, which refers to the face getting very red. It's also called fifth disease - No. 5 - since a list from way back in the 1900s listed it on a list of rash-causing diseases along with things like measles and scarlet fever. And that rash is actually an immune response to the virus. In most cases, once people get that rash, it means that they're not contagious anymore and they're well on their way to getting better.
MARTÍNEZ: But mild for most, as was mentioned. Who is it dangerous for?
HUANG: So it can be very dangerous for people who are pregnant or people with weakened immune systems or blood disorders. And that's because this virus actually messes with red blood cell production. And right now, doctors are seeing a surge in complications, like hospitalizations in children with sickle cell and fetal anemia in pregnant women, which then requires, like, blood transfusions.
MARTÍNEZ: So what's accounting for this surge right now?
HUANG: So it's not totally clear. I mean, one of the main theories is that it's making a comeback after COVID. I spoke with Dr. Alfonso Hernandez with CDC, who says that during COVID, when people stayed home and socially distanced...
ALFONSO HERNANDEZ: There was much less transmission and so immunity decreased a lot, especially among the younger age groups, and that's why we're seeing a resurgence in kids right now.
HUANG: Now, he says that they see surges of parvovirus generally every three to four years, but this one is pretty big. And he says that the levels now seem to be two to three times higher than the last surge in 2019. So they're also looking at whether there are changes to the virus making it more contagious, more severe than it's been in the past. So the bottom line here is that if you are a generally healthy person, you'll probably recover just fine if you rest up and take care of yourself. But there is no vaccine. So if you're a person at greater risk - say, if you're pregnant or immunocompromised - you'll want to be extra careful.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's NPR's Pien Huang. Thank you very much.
HUANG: You're welcome.
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