Researchers state that, the increasing incidents of Kawasaki disease amongst children in Japan might linked to winds coming in from Northeast China.
The Mysterious Kawasaki disease was first documented in 1967, Japan and is known to mostly target children under the age of 5. Kawasaki disease causes fever, rash, peeling fingernails and in about 25% of cases it can also lead to a coronary aneurysm-a life-threatening ballooning of arteries that supply blood the heart.
While a solid root cause of Kawasaki disease still remains a mystery, researchers have observed that the disease tends to affect children in Japan at a particular time of the year.
The best bet for scientists and researchers as of now is to assume that Kawasaki is an airborne disease affecting children. Researches that have been conducted to prove this link between the disease and winds blowing from north east china have been successful in doing so.
Research conducted using modeled air currents found that incidents of Kawasaki rose greatly only when winds originated from the vast swathes cereal-farming land in northeastern China.
“There are certainly other source regions around the globe, but focusing on the link between northeastern China, Japan, Hawaii, and the west coast of North America is our best bet for figuring this out,” said lead author Jane Burns, professor and director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Burn further added that there was a certain alteration in the environment of northeastern China during the 1960’s which is somehow now connected to the Kawasaki disease.
The answer as of now points towards the fact that the winds are apparently picking up some sort of pathogenic airborne toxin or molecule over areas where farming of grains is extensively carried out. Children who are genetically susceptible when in contact with such air tend to get reactions such as skin rashes and fever, all commonly associated with kawasaki disease.
Photo Credits: MSN
