Slapped Cheek Syndrome
Erythema infectosium (Latin name)By Bjarne Lühr Hansen PhD, MD and Philipp Skafte-Holm MD, Mentor Institute
A mild children’s disease you only contract once in a lifetime.
Slapped cheek syndrome is caused by infection through a virus is also known as ‘fifth disease’. It is typically children who are old enough to attend school who get it. Slapped cheek syndrome is epidemic (many cases at the same time) and appears approximately every third year from late winter to early summer.
The illness is mild with children. Almost half of the children do not even notice that they have the illness. Some children have a fever and a red rash on both cheeks. The rash is similar to the redness that appears after a slapped cheek – hence the name. A few children feel ill, have pains all over the body and have a pale rash on the whole body. The illness is untreatable but disappears by itself.
Slapped cheek syndrome with pregnant women has gotten a lot of attention since it can pose a threat to a foetus. 2 out of 3 pregnant women has had slapped cheek syndrome as children, and since you can only contract the illness once in a lifetime the illness poses no threat to the majority of pregnant women. The problem is that only few know whether they have had slapped cheek syndrome. It is a problem solved with a blood sample. From the blood sample you can see whether the pregnant women has had the illness and therefore has no reason to worry.