There is a new virus that is worrying health authorities and has already caused at least five deaths in France. The victims are babies.

The virus in question is parvovirus B19, a disease that according to French authorities has not been recorded with such intensity for a long time and which is currently far from having reached its peak.

Parvovirus B19 is a virus from the parvoviridae family, often transmitted through the respiratory tract. It usually causes asymptomatic forms of the disease, but it can also lead to erythema infectiosum, often referred to as the "fifth disease" because it is the fifth viral infection - along with measles, rubella, chickenpox and roseola - to cause a rash in children.

Severe forms are possible in immunocompromised people and in people with chronic anemia, but also in pregnant women, since this virus can cause spontaneous abortions and a risk of severe feto-placental edema, according to Le Parisien.

Last summer, the health authorities of this country had been alerted to "an unusual number of serious pediatric hospitalizations" at the Necker Hospital in Paris.

And in the meantime, in the first three months of this year, five babies under one year of age have already died, four of whom died "in the first days of life" as a result of an infection in the mother. 

These numbers, "are unusually high" and are something that the French authorities should be aware of, warn the country's health authorities.

According to Le Parisien, in the five years before Covid-19, there were only two deaths per year due to this virus, which is why five deaths in just three months is worrying.

According to general practitioner Michaël Rochoy, there are no specific symptoms that can be used to directly suspect a parvovirus B19 infection, especially in children.

"Diagnosis without testing is complicated, because it is a viral rash with some typical semiological characteristics... which are not always found," he explains. However, he recommends that in cases of suspected measles, where the test for this disease is negative, "a specialized service should be consulted in case of decreased active movements" of the fetus. 

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