• Question: Why is it that the cases of auto immune diseases like Kawasaki Disease are so difficult to trace? Even if it is an extremely common disease affecting so many related in the world. Also, why can patients contract this disease later in life ex. eight years of age when normal is one to two years

    Asked by meganlover to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 20 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      Kawasaki disease is really rare and very mysterious. It may even have a viral trigger, see this link for details:
      http://www.nature.com/news/infectious-disease-blowing-in-the-wind-1.10374

      Who knows if they’ll find anything, but this is great science!

    • Photo: Ruth Mitchell

      Ruth Mitchell answered on 20 Jun 2013:

      You’ve sort of contradicted yourself there – Kawasaki disease is really rare so it’s not extremely common. 72% of children with Kawasaki disease were less than five years old – so there are 28% that are over five years old. And most children will make a full recovery within six-to-eight weeks.

    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 24 Jun 2013:

      Autoimmune diseases can be difficult to study because they are the result of the body attacking itself, rather than an attack from outside the body by a disease (although some diseases can trigger autoimmune problems, making it even more complicated).

      It can be difficult to follow all the cases of a rare disease for several reasons – it might not always be diagnosed correctly, the tracking of diseases in different countries might not be well linked together or the cases of the disease might be in a country where accurate records are not kept.

      With every disease, there is variation in when the disease begins – there will always be some people who develop the disease when they are younger or older than average.

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Its a rare disease, also known as lymph node syndrome. Although the exact cause is unknown, scientists seem to have found a genetic reason for it, which is connected to way the immune system works.

      Although as you say, young children can get it, its appearance later in life might be connected to the older child’s/ persons health at that time, as this will affect the way in which the immune system’s working…

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