Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease is a syndrome of unknown cause that produces fever and mainly affects children under five, and is a form of vasculitis in which medium-sized blood vessels become inflamed throughout the body. Researchers suspect it may be triggered by an infection that sets off an abnormal immune response in genetically susceptible children, but despite intensive study no single causative pathogen has been identified. The fever typically lasts more than five days and does not respond to fever-reducing medicine, and it is often accompanied by swollen lymph nodes in the neck, a rash in the genital area, redness of the lips, palms, or soles, and red eyes. It is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries, and untreated cases develop coronary artery aneurysms in up to 25 percent of children and are fatal in about 1 percent, though treatment reduces the risk of death to about 0.17 percent.