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Kawasaki Disease
How Much do You Know About This Infectious Illness?
By Jenn Director Knudsen
"Somehow, it's got a perception it's incredibly rare and doesn't need to be talked about," Rowley says.
Susan Dwyer of Tiburon, Calif., recalls a week 11 years ago when her then 4-year-old son, Willie, had a slew of worsening symptoms the family doctor kept diagnosing as the flu. On her third visit with her son to the doctor, she recalls that "this time I knew something was wrong – I knew it wasn't just the flu."
Dwyer describes Willie as having had bloodshot eyes, strawberry tongue and fingers whose skin was peeling away. "In the week that he was sick, he hadn't left his bed, nor eaten – he'd lost 7 pounds, which is a lot on a 4-year-old," Dwyer says. "That's when they finally suspected Kawasaki."
Odd though Kawasaki may be – and lacking one definitive lab test to diagnose it – Kawasaki has at least five specific symptoms parents must be aware of, Rowley says. These include the following:
- Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
- Body rash, concentrated in the groin
- "Strawberry tongue," and red, dry, cracked lips, mouth and throat
- Pink-to-reddish whites of the eyes
- Red, swollen hands and feet; peeling of skin follows
- High, spiking, prolonged fever
- Irritability
Rowley acknowledges that most parents (if not pediatric nurses) take kids' temperatures the easy way, with a digital thermometer in the ear or under the arm. She emphasizes that the only two accurate temperature readings are taken orally or rectally. She urges parents – especially those whose child's fever is hanging on – to get as accurate a reading as possible. "After age 4, a kid can cooperate with oral temperature instructions," Rowley says.
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