Parvovirus B19 infection can cause which complication in patients with sickle cell disease?

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Multiple Choice

Parvovirus B19 infection can cause which complication in patients with sickle cell disease?

Parvovirus B19 infection causes a transient aplastic crisis in people with sickle cell disease by specifically suppressing red blood cell production in the bone marrow. The virus targets erythroid progenitor cells, leading to a pause in erythropoiesis. In sickle cell disease, where red cell turnover is already high, this brief arrest results in a dramatic drop in hemoglobin with a low reticulocyte count, producing severe anemia and symptoms like fatigue and pallor. Leukocytes and platelets are usually unaffected, so the picture is that of pure red cell aplasia rather than a global marrow failure. Treatment is supportive, with red blood cell transfusion if the anemia is severe or symptomatic, while the infection is typically self-limited as the immune system clears the virus. The other options don’t fit this scenario: asthma exacerbation involves airway inflammation, diabetic ketoacidosis is a metabolic crisis, and hemarthrosis refers to bleeding into joints—none are characteristic complications of Parvovirus B19 infection in sickle cell disease.

Parvovirus B19 infection causes a transient aplastic crisis in people with sickle cell disease by specifically suppressing red blood cell production in the bone marrow. The virus targets erythroid progenitor cells, leading to a pause in erythropoiesis. In sickle cell disease, where red cell turnover is already high, this brief arrest results in a dramatic drop in hemoglobin with a low reticulocyte count, producing severe anemia and symptoms like fatigue and pallor.

Leukocytes and platelets are usually unaffected, so the picture is that of pure red cell aplasia rather than a global marrow failure. Treatment is supportive, with red blood cell transfusion if the anemia is severe or symptomatic, while the infection is typically self-limited as the immune system clears the virus.

The other options don’t fit this scenario: asthma exacerbation involves airway inflammation, diabetic ketoacidosis is a metabolic crisis, and hemarthrosis refers to bleeding into joints—none are characteristic complications of Parvovirus B19 infection in sickle cell disease.

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