Acute human parvovirus B19 infection triggers immune‐mediated transient bone marrow failure syndrome, extreme direct hyperbilirubinaemia and acute hepatitis in patients with hereditary haemolytic anaemias: multicentre prospective pathophysiological study

Summary A total of 244 patients with hereditary haemolytic anaemias (HHA) were screened for acute symptomatic human parvovirus B19 infection (HPV‐B19) in a prospective study. To assess the risks associated with HPV‐B19 infection, patients were classified into Group I and Group II according to presence or absence (symptoms, signs and specific serology) of acute HPV‐B19 infection respectively. In all, 131 (53·7%) patients had β‐thalassaemia, 75 (30·7%) hereditary spherocytosis (HS), 27 (11·1%) sickle cell anaemia (SCA) and 11 (4·5%) glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency. Of 33 (13·5%) patients who presented with symptomatic HPV‐B19 infection, 19 (57·5%) had HS, nine (27·3%) had β‐thalassaemia and five (15·2%) had SCA. In Group I, there were significant differences in the mean white blood cell, red blood cell and platelet counts, haemoglobin concentration, total bilirubin (TB), alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and serum creatinine (all P