RESUMEN
The prevalence of anti-human parvovirus B19 IgG antibodies was determined in sera from 165 chronic hemolytic anemia patients, receiving medical care at Instituto Estadual de Hematologia (IEHE), Rio de Janeiro, during the year of 1994. This sample represents around 10 percent of the chronic hemolytic anemia patients attending at IEHE. Most of these patients (140) have sickle cell disease. Anti-B19 IgG antibodies were detected in 32.1 percent of patients. No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was seen between IgG antibody prevalence in male (27.8 percent) and female (35.5 percent) patients. Anti-B19 IgG antibodies were more frequent in older (37.6 percent) than younger (28.2 percent) than 20 years old patients, although this difference had no statistical significance (p > 0.05). Anti-B19 IgG antibody prevalence showed that 67.9 percent of patients enrolled in the study were susceptible to B19 acute infection. With the aim to detect acute B19 infection, patients follow up continued until February 1996. During this period four patients presented transient aplastic crisis due to human parvovirus B19 as confirmed by the detection of specific IgM antibodies. All four patients were younger than 20 years old, and 3 were younger than 10 years old. Three of them were sickle cell disease patients. Three of the four acute B19 infection occurred during 1994 springtime