Parvo Virus

I am so cranky at the moment. A friends little boy has parvo virus - slapped cheek. He spends a bit of time in childcare and is always passing on bugs to my kids! I have no immunity to parvo virus. Whilst I believe my 3 oldest children have had it I don't remember if my littlest one has... So I am stressed. I don't want anything to harm this pregnancy.

Has anyone else had exposure during early pregnancy and a good story to tell?

Thanks everyone... :hug:

My exposure was later and I had no immunity either. I kept getting flushed cheeks too which added to the stress while we waited for bloods and u/s results. All fine, I didn't get it and have a happy, healthy (well apart from a stinker of a cold :() bubs.

Thinking of you. :crossfingers:

People just don't get it do they!@?! We have a parvo outbreak at school each year...usually around spring...twice I have been pregnant and spent weeks at home on my docs advice... much to my boss's disgust...over the past few years many teachers(preg) at my school have come into contact prior to knowing what the kids have and no one has been effected...I found the govt health sites really informative...I think the vic one is particularly good from memory...good luck..

what are symptoms of slap cheek??

am i being too paranoid in thinking about not going to mothers group anymore?
we have a really big group of about 15 -20 of us and i really dont want to catch anything.....

Bugger Deb. So do you have a BT to check or just wait & see if you get it?

Actually the child in question had a b/t yesterday. If he has it then I panic!
Realistically the rate of transmission is low from adult to child and then it's likely the pregnancy won't be affected... But the risk is there.

It is a very mild illness usually in kiddies - in pregnant women it causes miscarriage, stillbirth due to hydrops... It can be very nasty...

Anyway I am jsut surrounding myself with positive thought and praying that he has got something other than this!

Deb, I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this extra stress, we all know you don't need it sweetie.

I know how you feel, we've recently had the same thing but with measles. It's so scary with all these sick people around at this time of the year and really no way to protect yourself and your bub.

I'm just getting over a nasty cold/virus and that was enough to stress me out despite my GP and Ob assuring me that this type of illness does not affect bub.

I hope that the little stinker's blood test comes back negative. Even so, I'd say you're chances of catching it are pretty remote :hug:

Let us know what's happening.

Deb,

About 1 week before i concieved, we went out to lunch with people who 2/3 kids had just had chicken pox, and 1 might have been incubating it. Then the day before we concieved, my son had a highish temp and was a bit off, so we went to the dr and got him the immunisation for chicken pox (as apparently if they have it early on in the virus lifecycle it is not so severe).

Anyway, that child turned out not to have chicken pox, but 1 weeks or so later when i got my BFP, i asked my dr to check my chicken pox immunity (i had had it very mild as a 5 year old, and just wanted to reassure myself)

Fast forward a few weeks to my 6 week visit at my obs, and i had chicken pox immunity, but had turned up a positive blood test for the parvo virus. Not at all what i was expecting. Basically adults are asymtomatic, and its likely if you have been around children to have already been exposed to it. If you do get it whilst pregnant, there is a very small chance that the baby gets it - and there is a raised chance of miscarriage, but moreso the baby is anaemic - and if its later on they will do an interutereo blood tranfusion.

They wanted me rechecked, as the test that showed positive basically shows recent infection, but they couldn't tell if it was when i got pregnant, or just before. Luckily my 2nd bt came back neg, so they think i had it just before - but i was so stressed about it, as i was told at my stage basically nothing could be done, although they did say the risk were so minimal that the baby would even get it, and then be affected by it.

I made a few posts (i think in the proffessional support section and probably in the general pregnancy section), and all the people who were exposed and babies got it all had very positive outcomes.

But i know the worry you might be going through, cos i was there 14 weeks ago, and nobody can tell you for sure it will be fine. The things that made me feel better were 1) parvo doesn't cause birth defects like chicken pox does, and 2) the chances were very slim.

If i were you i would just have a bt, so you know once and for all about your exposure. If you do come up positive (i think they repeat the bt depending on the results), they normally begin with ultrasounds more frequently just to keep an eye on things.

Hope that helped in some way, and that things turn out ok.