Kawasaki disease
May. 9th, 2020 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petrea_mitchellIf you've been following health news lately, you've probably seen a headline go by about children who test positive for covid-19 developing something that looks a lot like Kawasaki disease.
The heck is Kawasaki disease, you ask?
It's a cardiovascular disease which strikes young children. The journal Pediatrics has a description and history of it (up to the year to 2000) here. The cause is unknown, but it's hypothesized that the trigger is a pathogen that causes mild to no symptoms in most people. The process by which it damages the body is believed to involve over-activation of cytokines and subsequent damage to the cells lining the blood vessels, which is similar to how covid-19 is believed to work. Also like the worst form covid-19, it is inexplicably more common in males.
Now, it would be a huge leap to start thinking we're looking at two related viruses. (Although I'm sure someone has already started a study to check, just in case.) But it does suggest a common mechanism, and that what is known about treating Kawasaki disease may be useful for covid-19 and vice versa.
It may also help clarify why men tend to have worse outcomes from covid-19. If the reason is something that operates even in early childhood, it probably isn't sociocultural factors. Please stay safe, XY friends.
The heck is Kawasaki disease, you ask?
It's a cardiovascular disease which strikes young children. The journal Pediatrics has a description and history of it (up to the year to 2000) here. The cause is unknown, but it's hypothesized that the trigger is a pathogen that causes mild to no symptoms in most people. The process by which it damages the body is believed to involve over-activation of cytokines and subsequent damage to the cells lining the blood vessels, which is similar to how covid-19 is believed to work. Also like the worst form covid-19, it is inexplicably more common in males.
Now, it would be a huge leap to start thinking we're looking at two related viruses. (Although I'm sure someone has already started a study to check, just in case.) But it does suggest a common mechanism, and that what is known about treating Kawasaki disease may be useful for covid-19 and vice versa.
It may also help clarify why men tend to have worse outcomes from covid-19. If the reason is something that operates even in early childhood, it probably isn't sociocultural factors. Please stay safe, XY friends.
