Cai Xiaoying’s Viewpoint” A pandemic of “B19 microvirus” broke out in France!Death toll continues to rise | International | Newtalk News

Children and pregnant women traveling to France should be careful. The French Public Health (SPF) department issued an alert on the 22nd that erythema contagiosum infected by “B19 parvovirus” began to become popular about a year ago and “will continue to show an upward trend in 2024 and has not yet reached its peak in March.”

The outbreak has also led to an increase in the death toll. Five people have died in the first three months of 2024. This number is “exceptionally high”. The SPF has recorded between 0 and 2 deaths per year since 2015. “In Covid-19 Before the pandemic, the average number of deaths related to B19 parvovirus infection was only 1.8 per year, 78% of which were among people aged 15 or older.” Between 2020 and 2023, this average has reached 3.5 deaths per year. . Although the numbers are in single digits, the SPF is concerned about the dynamics of the epidemic, as there is a sharp increase in emergency cases among those under 15 years of age.

This pathogen is well known to the medical community but has been relatively rare in recent years. The virus can affect people of all ages, but is particularly dangerous to pregnant women and young children. According to the French public health department, all indicators of B19 parvovirus infection are increasing, including the number of diagnoses, hospitalizations and deaths. Moreover, “miscarriages and fetal deaths related to B19 parvovirus infection have increased.”

At least 5 babies have died due to B19 parvovirus infection in the first quarter of 2024. The fifth case was an eight-month-old baby who died because he was not immunosuppressed. Death from congenital infection within days.

Since May 2023, severe cases of B19 parvovirus infection have increased, especially in children and pregnant women aged 20-40 years. Last summer, emergency physicians and intensivists alerted public health authorities to an “exceptionally high number of serious pediatric hospitalizations” at the Paris Children’s Hospital Necker and a “resurgence of serious cases of B19 parvovirus infection” in several hospitals in the Paris region. Starting in the fall, authorities began implementing “continuous surveillance” to monitor the development of the epidemic.

As the National Public Health Agency’s report explains, parvovirus B19 is “a strictly human virus.” The virus is primarily present in the blood, but during the viremic phase it is present in the mouth, saliva and urine. The main mode of transmission is through respiratory tract such as droplets and sneezing. Other modes of transmission include hand-to-mouth contact, blood product transfusion and placental infection.

According to the SPF description, symptoms include mild fever, flushed cheeks, and a rough erythema on the arms, legs, and trunk. Symptoms are not obvious during the incubation period. “Clinical symptoms appear after 4 to 21 days of incubation, with contagious erythema on the face.” Sometimes it spreads to the limbs or even the entire body. If the infection is asymptomatic, it can also cause erythema contagiosum, a skin condition characterized by superficial redness that feels like a slap in the face. In adults, joint pain is often the only specific symptom. About a quarter of those infected show no symptoms.

The SPF pointed out that primary infection may cause more severe symptoms in patients with chronic hemolytic anemia, immunocompromised people and pregnant women, leading to miscarriage and hydroplacenta, and sometimes myocarditis or encephalitis.

When a woman is infected with B19 parvovirus during pregnancy, the virus can cross the placenta and directly infect the fetus, which may lead to complications or even miscarriage. The most terrifying complication is fetal anemia. In addition, B19 parvovirus can affect the cardiovascular system of the fetus and increase the risk of heart disease after birth.

This B19 microvirus causes erythema epizootics, which affects children between the ages of 5 and 15. It is particularly common in children and has been called the “fifth disease” because it is thought to be the virus that most commonly causes skin rashes in children. Fifth on the list of infections, after measles, scarlet fever, rubella and scalded skin syndrome, the fifth viral infection that causes childhood skin diseases, roseola is the sixth.

“Fifth disease” frequently occurs in spring, usually in the form of a regional epidemic, among children, especially school-age children. Before the rash occurs, children often suffer from mild fever, fatigue, colds, diarrhea, joint pain, etc. Symptoms. Infection may also occur in adults.

This disease occurs every 3-6 years, and once infected there is no risk of recurrence. But the worst thing is that there are no obvious characteristics when it occurs. The prodromal symptoms are only mild nasal congestion or runny nose, so it is not easy to diagnose. You often have to wait until the rash breaks out before you are alerted. General practitioner Michaël Rochoy explains in a column for Le Parisien that it seems particularly tricky to identify the disease with certainty based on simple symptoms: “All untested diagnoses are difficult because children present with Skin symptoms can be caused by a variety of viruses. “Red cheeks are often considered an atypical symptom, but many children develop red cheeks with the slightest fever. If a child is suspected of having measles but the test result is negative, attention should be paid to possible B19 parvovirus infection.

For pregnant women, SPF recommends that if fetal activity is reduced, you need to consult a doctor; for those who are the most vulnerable, the first step is to avoid any contact with people infected or suspected of being infected with the B19 parvovirus, and to protect themselves from the source.

The SPF also confirmed that since the B19 parvovirus pandemic, “the number of serious infection cases” has increased, even more in recent months, and that although “these data cannot be quantified”, the spread of the virus has intensified, even in May 2023 It has reached an epidemic stage, with children and pregnant women aged 20-40 being the most severely affected.

Only three months have passed this year, and the number of deaths from the B19 microvirus has soared to 5, which is definitely worthy of heightened vigilance. About 100 children under the age of 15 now go to emergency rooms each week with suspected B19 parvovirus infections, up from fewer than 10 at this time last year.

The cause of this outbreak of infection is still unclear, but the SPF said it may be due to the fact that everyone wears masks and maintains a safe distance during the Covid-19 epidemic, which not only avoids contracting the Covid-19 virus, but also reduces the chance of exposure to other viruses. So after the “removal of health measures”, the chances of infection are now increasing. Recent research on Covid-19 is the first to highlight the harmful effects of the Covid-19 virus on the immune system, which may explain recent outbreaks of bronchiolitis, strep or meningococcal infections, measles, and even whooping cough.

The SPF also noted that other countries, including Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Israel, have also seen an increase in B19 parvovirus infections.

The SPF concludes that the combination of indicators shows very clearly that France “is in an epidemic phase” and considers the need to monitor this epidemic, which is still on the rise, in order to continue to inform people about the situation and the need to educate health professionals and the public , especially high-risk groups’ awareness of the resurgence of this “fifth disease”.