Roseola

Roseola is an infection caused by a virus. The infection is common in children aged 6 to 24 months. It is rare in children younger than 4 months or older than 4 years.

What causes roseola?

Roseola is caused by a virus (human herpes virus 6, or HHHV-6). Most children have usually been affected by this virus by the time they are 4 years of age. Infants and children are believed to catch the virus from close contact with a family member or care-giver who passes the virus but has no symptoms.

Older siblings usually don't catch roseola because they have had the illness at an earlier age.

Symptoms

High fever that starts abruptly

Fever (may last three to four days)

Irritability

Swelling of the eyes

Rash (As the fever decreases, a pink rash, with either flat or raised lesions, starts to appear on the trunk and then spreads to the face, arms, and legs.)

Treatment

Most children recover fully from roseola within a week of the onset of the fever. With your doctor's advice, you can give your child over-the-counter medications to reduce fever, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others). However, don't give aspirin to a child who has a viral illness because aspirin has been associated with the development of Reye's syndrome, which can be serious.

There's no specific treatment for roseola, although some doctors may prescribe the antiviral medication ganciclovir (Cytovene) to treat the infection in people with weakened immunity. Antibiotics aren't effective in treating viral illnesses, such as roseola.

Prevention

Because there's no vaccine to prevent roseola, the best you can do to prevent the spread of roseola is to avoid exposing your child to an infected child. If your child is sick with roseola, keep him or her home and away from other children until the fever has broken. Once the rash appears, the virus is much less contagious.

Most people have antibodies to roseola by the time they're of school age, making them immune to a second infection. Even so, if one household member contracts the virus, make sure that all family members wash their hands frequently to prevent spread of the virus to anyone who isn't immune.

Adults who never contracted roseola as children can become infected later in life, though the disease tends to be mild in healthy adults. The main concern is that infected adults can pass the virus on to children.