Kawasaki Disease is a serious illness usually found in children under the age of 5
As per NHS website;
A child with Kawasaki disease has a high temperature that lasts for 5 days or longer, and possibly 1 or more of the following symptoms:
- a rash
- swollen glands in the neck
- dry, red cracked lips
- a swollen, bumpy, red tongue (“strawberry tongue”)
- red inside the mouth and at the back of the throat
- swollen and red hands and feet
- red eyes
basically the child is RAGING RED; HOT, RED EVERYWHERE AND IRRITABLE!
It is a form of vasculitis (inflammation of the blood vessel, more accurately medium-sized blood vessels). The reason why it is a serious illness is because it’s not just a fever, or just a viral, it’s the entire body’s blood vessel on fire!!!
SO IF YOU SUSPECT YOUR CHILD MIGHT HAVE KAWASAKI, please seek medical help for a review. It’s better to be safe than sorry!
Untreated Kawasaki can lead to (think about your blood vessels being attacked by your immune system):
- commonly coronary artery aneurysm: the blood vessel supplying oxygenated blood to the child’s heart weaken and balloons up (aka aneurysm)
- aneurysm of other arteries.
- the above can in turn affects organ supplied by the artery.
It’s important to note that Kawasaki has become the leading cause of acquired (not born with it) heart disease in childhood in countries such as USA and Japan. 1 out of 5 children children with Kawasaki that are untreated end up with some form of heart disease.
Child would have to be hospitalised
Treatment usually consists of;
- aspirin
- IV (intravenous) immunoglobulin
When in doubt, seek help