The risk of being infected with parvovirus is high in people who belong to the Rh(D) blood group, according to a study published in the journal The Journal of Infectious Diseases by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in collaboration with Octapharma.
Fifth disease is a viral illness caused by the parvovirus. Most commonly, school-aged children are affected, with common symptoms such as red patches on the cheeks, which can also spread to the arms and legs. Even adults can be infected, but many show no symptoms.
In a new study, researchers can now demonstrate that the risk of contracting the disease is high if the person belongs to the Rhesus D antigen or so-called Rh(D) blood group. Besides the blood grouping of the AB0 system, the Rh system is the most common.
All infected persons belonged to the Rh(D) group
More than 160,000 blood donors in Germany were screened for parvovirus between 2015 and 2018. Of the blood donors, 22 people were infected with the virus. All infected persons belonged to the Rh(D) blood group.
This is a significant finding that has not yet been described and might mean that Rh(D) is important when the virus enters the host cell and might also be a new cellular receptor, not yet identified, for the virus. »
Rasmus Gustafsson, researcher affiliated with the department of clinical neurosciences at Karolinska Institutet and project manager at Octapharma.
Women are overrepresented
The researchers also found that the risk of infection was high during the summer months. In addition, women as well as people between the ages of 31 and 40 are at increased risk of infection.
“At this age, there are usually toddlers around. We already know that young children are infected in kindergarten and then infect their parents. The age and gender distribution may therefore reflect the fact that more women than men work in the care sector and take care of children,” explains Rasmus Gustafsson.
The study was conducted in collaboration with the company Octapharma, where several of the co-authors are active.
Source :
Journal reference:
Healy, K., et al. (2022) Prevalence of parvovirus B19 viremia among German blood donations and relationship to ABO and Rhesus blood group antigens. The Journal of Infectious Diseases. doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac456.