Parvovirus B19 and Pregnant Women: A Bibliographic Review

Abstract

Parvovirus B19 (PVB19) is one of the smallest viruses that are known to infect humans [1]. The clinical manifestations of B19V infection vary greatly and depend on age, hematologic and immunologic status. In immunocompetent individuals, the infection can be completely asymptomatic or can cause mild and self-limiting clinical manifestations such as erythema infectiosum or fifth disease during childhood, arthralgias and arthritis in adults, particularly in women [2,3], chronic hemolytic anemia, and fetal death in utero or non-immune hydrops fetalis in pregnant women [4]. Due to the efficient replication of B19V in the erythroid progenitor cells [5]. In temperate climates, the infection may occur throughout the year, Infection is most common in late winter or early spring [6]. During pregnancy, the virus is transmitted through exposure to infected respiratory droplets or blood products and vertically from mother to fetus [7,8]. The vertical transmission of B19 occurs in about one-third of women infected [9].The proportion of pregnant women susceptible to B19 infection ranges from 34% to 65% in various parts of the world. The incidence of seroconversion during pregnancy is estimated at between 1% and 1, 5% in the endemic period, increasing to 13% in the epidemic period [10]. Non-immune women are most likely to be infected by young children [11]. Parvovirus infection of mothers is diagnosed using serologic or an immune assay enzyme B19 IgM and B19 IgG [12]. Viral DNA can be detected by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and is considered to be the best indicator of infection in maternal, fetal blood, and amniotic fluid [13]. In these conditions, it seemed necessary to us to study this virus in this article and to answer the various practical questions raised by the occurrence of contagion and/or infection with Parvovirus B19 during pregnancy.