The mild anemia of acute infection

Anemia occurs frequently in children with infection. Certain forms of anemia, such as the sickle cell hemoglobinopathies, may themselves antedate or even predipose to serious infection. Viral illnesses occasionally cause severe anemia by means of immunologically mediated hemolysis, oxidation of hemoglobin or other poorly defined mechanisms. Examples of these clinical situations include the Coombs-positive immunohemolytic anemia which sometimes accompanies a nonspecific viral infection,1,2 the sudden and often severe hemolysis which may follow a viral illness in the host deficient in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase3 and severe aplastic anemia which rarely complicates hepatitis.4 Certain other acute infections, such as malaria and clostridial sepsis, are classically associated with a profound degree of anemia due to marked intravascular hemolysis.