Acute liver disease and aplastic anemia associated with the persistence of B19 DNA in liver and bone marrow

We observed a 12-year-old boy with acute hepatitis and associated aplastic anemia (AA), where parvo-virus B19 genome was repeatedly detected in liver and bone marrow biopsies, but not in blood samples. We conclude that: (1) B19 infection may be underdiagnosed as the causative agent responsible for acute hepatitis and assocated AA if no organ-specific diagnostic tests are applied; (2) B19 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can persist in the liver; (3) during the acute phase of hepatitis, extramedullary hematopoiesis may be involved in the susceptibility for hepatic B19 infection.