Word
Transient aplastic crisis
A temporary suppression of red-cell production that can cause severe anemia, especially in people with an underlying red-cell disorder.
In parvovirus B19 infection, the virus can briefly stop the bone marrow from making red blood cells. In many people this pause is tolerated, but it can cause severe anemia. It usually affects children with hemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease, or other red-cell disorders such as hereditary spherocytosis, whose red cells are already destroyed faster than normal. It matters because a child with one of these disorders can become severely anemic during an infection that is otherwise usually mild.