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Kawasaki Disease
How Much do You Know About This Infectious Illness?
By Jenn Director Knudsen
The left thumb certainly was no panacea anymore; she abandoned it entirely and instead took to absentmindedly peeling away layer after layer of her flesh, leaving trails of tiny fingerprints on the ground like Hansel and Gretl scattering grains.
So on day six of Alyssa's fever and bizarre, worsening symptoms, we returned to the pediatrician. Within minutes and with the help of a medical textbook, he diagnosed something I'd certainly never heard of and that he said he'd only seen in a hospital, not a clinic: Kawasaki disease.
He called the children's hospital in Portland, Ore., and told the staff she and I would be there shortly. A now-hysterical Alyssa was to be admitted. She'd need a 24-hour treatment to rid her body of the purported virus that caused this little-known disease that, if left untreated, can cause temporary or permanent heart damage. Even death.
It appears the infection that causes Kawasaki occurs more frequently among Japanese and Koreans and those of Asian descent. And its victims also more often are male and under age 5.
So how did my 5-year-old Caucasian daughter get this scary disease?
That remains unknown, but it turns out Kawasaki is more common generally and more widespread in the genetic pool than once believed, according to Anne Rowley, a pediatric infectious disease specialist with Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
In fact, Rowley says chances of getting Kawasaki are greater than Lyme disease, and yet this tick-borne disease isn't nearly as big a mystery. That's because Lyme disease is an adult as well as a childhood illness, whereas despite the few adolescents, teens and adults diagnosed with Kawasaki every year, Kawasaki is almost exclusively a kids' disease, Rowley says. Its victims tend to be from 6 months to 5 years of age.
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