Human serum parvovirus as the cause of aplastic crisis in sickle cell disease.

An infectious agent has long been suspected as the cause of aplastic crisis in sickle cell disease, but no specific organism has been implicated. We studied six children with sickle cell disease in whom an aplastic crisis developed, looking for evidence of parvoviruslike virus (SPLV) infection using a new radioimmunoassay. All six patients had conclusive evidence of acute infection with SPLV. We postulated that SPLV is the predominant cause of aplastic crises in patients with hemolytic anemia.