I had parvovirus B19 a few years ago as well (mid to late 2019). I still have some nerve issues from it (I gave up on treating that; it presents like rheumatoid arthritis but the blood factors for that are missing). I'm surprised to hear that it's considered so rare; my wife caught it from me and also had the symptoms (huge swollen joints, interesting rash like the Trill from Star Trek, incredible back pain — and she too has lingering nerve issues). My daughter also got the classic presentation of fifth disease, which is how I narrowed down what it was. A weirdly under-documented illness, especially considering it can lead to lifelong arthritis.
>> it presents like rheumatoid arthritis but the blood factors for that are missing
I have the same thing, and I also caught mine in 2019!!!! For me the treatment is one steroid shot a year, I've seen various rheumatologists and they all said it's
postviral reactive arthritis, but with the recurrence of symptoms being so rare(once a year) they wouldn't recommend treatment with any of the typical medicines like methotrexate(which is probably a good thing tbh). None of them predict this is going to go away any time soon though, apparently the average time for post-reactive arthritis to resolve itself is 8-10 years.
It's incredibly interesting to find someone else with the same symptoms as me though, most doctors I speak to say this is the first time they've seen a case like mine(after parvovirus that is, reactive arthritis after viral infections is unfortunately somewhat common).
>>I'm surprised to hear that it's considered so rare
I've been treated at one of England's largest infectious diseases unit and they said it's incredibly rare for them to see an adult with an active parvo B19 infection, they literally had a handful over the last 10 years. That's not to say that the infection itself is rare, just that it rarely gets diagnosed properly.
