Family medicine physicians will encounter severe sepsis. Normally the work-up consists of searching for the bacterial source and then modifying initial empiric treatment. Unfortunately, not all infectious sources of sepsis are bacterial; 7% of sepsis cases seen are due to a virus, fungi, or protozoa. 1 Presented here is a case of an otherwise healthy adult female with severe sepsis, negative blood cultures, and a normal complete blood cell (CBC) count. Extensive work-up was highly suggestive of parvovirus B19 infection as the cause. MEDLINE review revealed no previously described cases.
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