Erythema Infectiosum—Report of an Area-Wide Outbreak

Abstract

Reports are given of laboratory tests in this rather unfamiliar disease during an 8-month outbreak totaling several thousand cases in Detroit, 1956-1957. No viral causative agents were isolated at the time, though much research, sometimes overlapping, is now being carried on to isolate the virus. Seldom recognized in this country, erythema infectiosum is a distinct exanthem, clinically mild to moderate, which simulates other more common exanthems, but without cross-immunity.