The emerging story of a human parvovirus-like agent

Abstract

It is now seven years since Cossart and her co-workers reported finding a novel parvovirus-like agent (PVLA) infecting man. Although this virus was found as a systemic infection in both Dr Cossart's eleven subjects and a further four subjects described subsequently (Paver & Clarke, 1976; Schneerson, Mortimer & Vandervelde, 1980) it was not until 1981 that a clearly defined clinical syndrome was identified as attributable to infection with this agent. Work in the Departments of Microbiology and Haematology, King's College Hospital Medical School and collaboration with the MRC laboratory at Kingston, Jamaica has shown that infection with the PVLA is the major cause of aplastic crisis in children with sickle cell anaemia (Sergeantet al.1981, Andersonet al.1982a, b).