A Japanese paediatrician named Tomisaku Kawasaki saw his
first case in 1960.
The disease, an inflammation of the blood vessels that
primarily affects children aged 5 or under, produces a variety of dramatic
symptoms, including fever, rash and what is aptly described as 'strawberry
tongue'. Roughly a quarter of untreated children also develop aneurysms in the
blood vessels of their hearts that kill 1% outright and can cause heart attack
years later in survivors.
The condition’s cause is unknown despite almost half a
century of research, although a previous study1
suggested that this might
be a disease-inducing agent that is carried by the wind to
Japan, and then across the Pacific Ocean to the western United States, from a
source somewhere in Asia.
Researchers suspected that this would pinpoint Kawasaki’s
source because wind masses tend to drop particles of dirt or biological matter
— and pick up new ones — as they slow.
Likely incubation time for the disease was calculated to be 6
hours to 2.5 days, but probably less than 24 hours. Recently it has been traced to the croplands of northeastern
China, in a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2
Kawasaki’s
relatively quick onset, rules out a viral cause and suggests to be caused by a
windborne toxin made by a plant, fungus or bacterium. If a wind-borne toxin is
indeed responsible, it would be the first disease known to operate in this way.
References
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