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.
