The ‘boogeyman’ of pediatrics: What is Kawasaki disease?

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Fifteen children at least have been identified with symptoms of a rare inflammatory in New York City hospitals. This alarms pediatricians all over the country and also have some concerns about a potential link to COVID-19.

Symptoms that appeared on the patients usually seen in the Kawasaki disease or toxic shock syndrome, such as fever.

Ages of the children were between two and fifteen, they got identified between the 29th of April and the 3rd of May. All of them had a fever, half or more have a rash, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

Doctors have received an alarm that respiratory symptoms appeared on half of the patients, as it was reported by the NYC health department. 4 out of the 15 patients tested positive for coronavirus.

The city’s health department said that no one has died. However, several patients had to get blood pressure support and 5 of them had to be supported with mechanical ventilation.

Both coronavirus and Kawasaki are deceptive conditions that doctors are still researching. Some experts have doubts about the link between them while others don’t think the mysterious symptoms related to Kawasaki.

What is Kawasaki disease?

“Kawasaki disease is one of the great mysteries in pediatrics,” said Dr. Plain Esper, a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases. “It’s something we’ve been dealing with for decades.”

Symptoms such as a fever of 101 degrees that go on for five days or increasingly, a rash and swollen organs in the neck, concurring to Britain’s National Health Service. Esper stated that it predominately influences kids between the ages of 2 and 6, will in general run during “mini-epidemics,” and is bound to occur in the winter than the late spring.

While doctors realize how to treat Kawasaki, they despite everything don’t have a clue what causes it or why a few people get it. Esper says “a cemetery of different reports” have hypothesized the illness is brought about by viruses while others say people might be hereditarily inclined.

“Kawasaki disease is the boogeyman to pediatricians,” he stated. “It’s extremely difficult to diagnose. Even with the most astute clinicians, we have a hard time figuring out who has it and who doesn’t.”

Esper says the major marker of the disease can be found in the heart. Coronary supply route aneurysm, or widening of the coronary conduits, is the thing that recognizes Kawasaki from some other inflammatory disease.

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