B19 parvovirus infection and transient aplastic crisis in a child with sickle cell anemia.

Transient aplastic crisis is reported in a young child with sickle cell anemia with acute B19 parvovirus infection. She also developed acute chest syndrome and bone marrow/bone infarction involving the right ilium. The clinically unsuspected bone marrow infarction in this patient may have contributed to acute chest syndrome secondary to pulmonary fat embolism. Transient cessation of erythropoiesis as a result of B19 parvovirus infection, and not the localized bone marrow infarction, was the probable cause of reticulocytopenia and worsening of anemia in this child.