What is Kawasaki Disease?

Do you really know?

What is Kawasaki Disease? Thanks for asking!

The general consensus was that children were relatively safe from COVID-19. But since late April, a number of coronavirus-positive children have been admitted to hospital with strange symptoms, resembling those of Kawasaki Disease.

How and when Kawasaki Disease was discovered ?

The condition was discovered by Tomisaku Kawasaki in late 1960s Japan. It affects young children and the resulting damage to blood vessels can lead to serious heart problems in the worst cases. The problem is we just don’t know how to explain the causes. Scientists believe it may be an autoimmune response due to a viral or bacterial infection, to which some children are genetically predisposed. The symptoms include a high fever, skin rashes, conjunctival injection and stomach pains. Children affected by Kawasaki disease are treated in hospital as there can be serious complications. Intravenous immunoglobulin is administered in high doses, usually improving symptoms within 36 hours. Full recovery can take up to six weeks, but lasting damage is uncommon. Not a lot of people knew about this disease, due to its relative rareness. That’s especially true in Europe, which less than one in 10,000 children are affected. But in April 2020, the British health minister warned that hospitals had admitted tens of children with similar symptoms. Elsewhere in Europe, hospital services in Italy, Spain and France observed clusters of similar cases. In the United States, three children died from an inflammatory disease in early May.

So are we saying that Covid-19 could be bringing on Kawasaki disease? Regardless of whether it is in fact Kawasaki disease or not, is it caused by coronavirus? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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