Last week, the NYT published a story about Dr. Jane Burns' quest to solve the mystery of Kawasaki Disease. They also published a how-to spot it, but without photos. This is your primer, with photos.
Thank you for sharing all of these photos and your experience. In these days of crowded ER’s, burnt out and overworked medical and nursing staff, it feels really important to have this information.
Well Deborah …. I was stunned to see your article on KD . My son Ari was diagnosed with it in 1982 at age 2 . We were so fortunate to have him seen by a young doctor fresh out of Mayo and who had been aware of this “ new “ virus when his older partners were puzzled. Thank goodness we had the means to have him monitored with echocardiograms till he was 5 and of course initially put on blood thinners . He was case # 751 when registered in Infectious Disease Center in Atlanta at that time . I will add I had offered at the time maybe my carpet cleaning prior to his diagnosis was perhaps connected to this disease since his older siblings where not🤔 I was blown off until around 7 years later my pediatrician send me an article from the academy of pediatrics making a partial connection perhaps to carpet cleaning ( who knows … mothers intuition and common sense ? . Thank you as always for building on this important information with your photos.
Oh wow! Yes, even back in 2011, it was still not well known, at least here on the east coast. And we did not have our carpets cleaned prior to my son's diagnosis, so who knows? Still a mystery...
The article says "...the condition is then brought on by something they breathe in, whether a virus, a bacteria or a toxin."
When they tested the air samples, they found Candida but are still unsure of what causes Kawasaki.
I'm no doctor or scientist but I can't help but wonder if it's related in any way to exposure of radiation. Fukushima accident was in March 2011. Were you in Berkeley after that? (Not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the correlation to the higher rates in Japan and West Coast of the US.) I'm curious if these weather systems could carry and disperse radiation particles.
"By 2000, a student of Dr. Burns’s noticed that Kawasaki disease cases in San Diego climbed whenever it rained."
"They had all occurred when large-scale wind currents were blowing in from Central Asia. When those winds reached Hawaii and California, cases climbed there, too."
We were in Berkeley in May of 2011, so yes. The first case of KD was noted by Dr. Kawasaki in Japan in 1967. The first case outside Japan was noted in Hawaii in 1976. But maybe there were many mysterious cases of kids dying from heart attacks prior, but they were just not noticed until 1967. Could it go back to radiation from the bomb? Your guess is as good as any at this point. They just don't know.
Thank you for sharing all of these photos and your experience. In these days of crowded ER’s, burnt out and overworked medical and nursing staff, it feels really important to have this information.
Thank you, Elizabeth.
Well Deborah …. I was stunned to see your article on KD . My son Ari was diagnosed with it in 1982 at age 2 . We were so fortunate to have him seen by a young doctor fresh out of Mayo and who had been aware of this “ new “ virus when his older partners were puzzled. Thank goodness we had the means to have him monitored with echocardiograms till he was 5 and of course initially put on blood thinners . He was case # 751 when registered in Infectious Disease Center in Atlanta at that time . I will add I had offered at the time maybe my carpet cleaning prior to his diagnosis was perhaps connected to this disease since his older siblings where not🤔 I was blown off until around 7 years later my pediatrician send me an article from the academy of pediatrics making a partial connection perhaps to carpet cleaning ( who knows … mothers intuition and common sense ? . Thank you as always for building on this important information with your photos.
Oh wow! Yes, even back in 2011, it was still not well known, at least here on the east coast. And we did not have our carpets cleaned prior to my son's diagnosis, so who knows? Still a mystery...
These unforgettable photos are a great public service to us all.
Thanks, Catherine.
The article says "...the condition is then brought on by something they breathe in, whether a virus, a bacteria or a toxin."
When they tested the air samples, they found Candida but are still unsure of what causes Kawasaki.
I'm no doctor or scientist but I can't help but wonder if it's related in any way to exposure of radiation. Fukushima accident was in March 2011. Were you in Berkeley after that? (Not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the correlation to the higher rates in Japan and West Coast of the US.) I'm curious if these weather systems could carry and disperse radiation particles.
"By 2000, a student of Dr. Burns’s noticed that Kawasaki disease cases in San Diego climbed whenever it rained."
"They had all occurred when large-scale wind currents were blowing in from Central Asia. When those winds reached Hawaii and California, cases climbed there, too."
We were in Berkeley in May of 2011, so yes. The first case of KD was noted by Dr. Kawasaki in Japan in 1967. The first case outside Japan was noted in Hawaii in 1976. But maybe there were many mysterious cases of kids dying from heart attacks prior, but they were just not noticed until 1967. Could it go back to radiation from the bomb? Your guess is as good as any at this point. They just don't know.