Human parvovirus B19 - also known as fifth disease or erythema infectiosum - is a common childhood infection causing a rash and flu-like symptoms. The name sounds more ominous than the infection is.

Fifth disease or erythema infectiosum (EI) is a typically mild disease caused by the parvovirus B19. This virus may be responsible for a spectrum of disease of which EI is the mildest. In susceptible ...

The epidemic is believed to have begun in early December, 1961, in Port Angeles, Washington (population 12,653, according to the 1960 census), and appears to have ended in the following June. During ...