Kawasaki disease & the link with Covid-19

• In India and elsewhere, a new illness, with some symptoms common with the rare Kawasaki disease, has been affecting children with Covid-19.

Multisystem Inflammatory Disorder:

• The first such cases started getting reported since April, from the US and Europe.

• Doctors in India have started seeing such cases over the last few weeks. Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) termed this new illness “multisystem inflammatory disorder”.

Kawasaki disease:

• Kawasaki disease affects children.

• Its symptoms include red eyes, rashes, and a swollen tongue with reddened lips — often termed strawberry tongue — and an inflamed blood vessel system all over the body. There is constant high fever for at least five days. The disease also affects coronary functions in the heart.

• The disease derives its name from a Japanese paediatrician, Tomisaku Kawasaki, who reported the first case in 1961. The doctor, 95, died on June 5 this year in Tokyo.

• What causes Kawasaki disease is not yet known. What we do know is that it is an immunological reaction to an infection or a virus. A child’s immunity system responds to a particular infection and develops these symptoms.

What is the link with Covid-19?

• Children with Covid-19 are mostly asymptomatic or develop mild symptoms. It has been in rare cases that children with Covid-19 have shown symptoms similar to those of Kawasaki disease, 2-3 weeks after getting infected with coronavirus.

• In India, too, the cases (including some children who tested negative for Covid-19) that have been coming up have shown some of the symptoms associated with Kawasaki disease, but with some differences.