Thursday, March 27, 2008

Maybe This Chronic Parvo Isn't So Unusual After All

I recently came across a link for a journal article written way back in 1999 that says that 60 percent of women who are infected with parvovirus develop joint pain, sometimes severe. Typically, it only lasts a few weeks.

But the article also says 20 percent of those women develop persistent or recurring problems with joint pain that lasts months or years. The emphasis, of course, is mine.

Ugh.

That doesn't sound like such a rare problem as I'd been led to believe by my doctors.

Although the medical community is historically slow to pay any attention to diseases that affect women much more severely than men, and like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and other invisible illnesses, men are much less likely to have these problems from parvovirus.

I'm still not entirely convinced that my problem is parvovirus. I haven't read much about the chronic killer fatigue I suffer showing up from parvo, at least not on the medical sites. The articles all focus on the joint pain.

As my rheumatologist says, all we can do is wait and see.

4 comments:

Oregonian37 said...

Ok, now you have me looking this stuff up!:) I had never heard of human parvo.
I found this (as someone with arthritis and periodic bouts of fatigue, it caught my attention:

Arthritis
In adults (and perhaps some children), parvovirus B19 can lead to a seronegative arthritis which is usually easily controlled with analgesics. Women are approximately twice as likely as men to experience arthritis after parvo virus infection. Possibly up to 15% of all new cases of arthritis are due to parvovirus, and a history of recent contact with a patient and positive serology generally confirms the diagnosis.[7] This arthritis does not progress to other forms of arthritis. Typically joint symptoms last 1-3 weeks, but in 10-20% of those affected, it may last weeks to months.


Amazing to have never heard of it and it be so common. Bleh.

Aviva said...

Yeah, it's totally bizarre! What source did you see this quote in? I'd have been thrilled if my symptoms only lasted weeks or months. I'm starting to come across people who have had symptoms and a parvo diagnosis for 5+ years, which I find utterly terrifying.

Coldwater said...

Check out Ed McCabe's book 'Flood Your Body with Oxygen." It covers all know ways to oxygenate the body.

Many of the information like ozone and peroxide have proved invaluable for these type of health problems.

It's a meaty 640 paged book and you can go to his free site www.oxygenhealth.com and check out the research.

me said...

My daughter (2.5 yrs old) is battling chronic parvovirus. It's been 7 months now. This is THE ONLY THING that she has. We have tested her for EVERYTHING. Have you found a treatment that works? She has gone through 9 rounds of IV IG and is still battling this aweful virus!