Health experts raise concerns for pregnant women amid rise of parvovirus cases

The CDC has issued an alert to doctors to watch for signs of the highly contagious parvovirus. Cases are rising in the U.S. including in the Bay Area.

Parvovirus is not new as it’s been around for a long time. Most adults have already had this infection as Children but there is an uptick in cases going on right now.

Currently, the concern is around pregnant women because it could cause their babies to become anemic.

The proportion of people with antibodies jumped from less than 3% in the last two years to 10 percent in June. Doctors in the Bay Area are noticing it too.

UCSF Infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said parvovirus is not new. But it dipped to record lows early in the pandemic.

“Right now, it’s catching up, we’ve seen a lot of rapid increases in people,” he said.

Some people will show no symptoms while others may get a fever, headache, cough, sore throat and joint pain.

Rashes on the face are more common in children.

Chin-Hong said among those most at risk are pregnant women and their unborn children because the virus could cause the baby to be anemic.

“Anemia or lower blood cell count in a fetus can have much more severe consequences,” she said.

At 30 weeks pregnant, Abby Parks is in the hospital.

Parks, who is a schoolteacher, is dealing with the impact of the parvovirus she got this spring. She said initially, the virus made her unborn son anemic and her doctor performed a fetal blood transfusion.

“I’m at the hospital tonight because our placenta has been closely monitored throughout the pregnancy,” she said. “Since the parvovirus and we had been having abnormal blood flow, meaning the placenta was working but it was working really, really hard. Today, unfortunately, the placenta is essentially taking breaks so there’s absent blood flow going to my son.”

While parvovirus could have severe consequences, Chin-Hong said it’s not common.

“Of the pregnant people who get parvovirus, only about 5-10% people would have any consequence,” he said.

There’s no vaccine against parvovirus. To help prevent the spread, Chin-Hong said people need to wash their hands and to wear a mask in crowded areas.