Novel coronavirus infection and Kawasaki disease

J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. 2022 Aug;35(16):3044-3048. doi: 10.1080/14767058.2020.1800633. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Abstract

There is a global problem of increment of the number of children with clinical features that mimic Kawasaki Disease (KD) during the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The disease was first reported by Tomisaku Kawasaki, a Japanese pediatrician, in a four-year-old child with a rash and fever at the Red Cross Hospital in Tokyo in January 1961. Now Kawasaki disease is recognized worldwide. The complexity of symptoms was defined as an «acute febrile mucocutaneous lymphnode syndrome". At the moment, it is still unclear whether the coronavirus itself can lead to development of mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome. However, it is believed that COVID-19 virus infection worsens the course of Kawasaki disease, and in some cases, children affected by SARS-V-2 may develop a disease that has a clinical picture similar to Kawasaki disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; Kawasaki disease; Kawasaki-like vasculitis; mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome; thromboinflammation.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / complications
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Fever
  • Humans
  • Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* / complications
  • Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* / diagnosis
  • Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome* / epidemiology
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2