Clarification

I've had a lot of people ask me what Fifth Disease is, so here is your medical lesson for today.  Fifth Disease is a mostly childhood disease that is caused by Human Parvovirus B19.  It is called Fifth Disease because it is the fifth in the list of five common childhood diseases observed by a French physician named Dukes around 1900.  The other four are Measles (First Disease), Scarlet Fever (Second Disease), Rubella (Third Disease), and a Fourth Disease that has no other name, and is now considered to have never existed.  Fifth starts with usually mild cold or flu like symptoms with a low grade fever and tiredness, and then those symptoms disappear and you develop a rash, usually starting on the cheeks, that resembles a lacy pattern.  The rash then spreads down the whole body, but disappears within 2-7 days and usually doesn't bother the child.  What the virus actually does is temporarily stops the body from making red blood cells, so you get anemic and develop the flu symptoms as your body is trying to figure out what is going on and fix it.  Then, you get the rash as your body starts to make red blood cells again and they reprofuse.  If an adult gets it, they don't usually get the rash, but they do get joint pain and swelling.  If a pregnant woman gets Fifth, so can the baby which can cause complications if the baby becomes anemic.

So, there you have it.  Now you know what our family had in great detail!