Classic transient erythroblastopenia of childhood with human parvovirus B19 genome detection in the blood and bone marrow.

The etiology of transient erythroblastopenia of childhood (TEC) remains unknown, although an association with viral infections has been proposed. The authors describe a 3.5-year-old girl with classic TEC concomitantly with human parvovirus B19 (HPV) infection. The infection was evident by detection of HPV genome in the blood and the bone marrow by polymerase chain reaction. Viral genome was no longer detected when the TEC resolved clinically. The patient was immunocompetent and the anemia has not recurred. To the authors' knowledge, this is one of the few documented cases of classic TEC attributable to HPV infection.