Kawasaki Syndrome and Carpet Cleaning
Kawasaki Syndrome and Carpet Cleaning
Medical researchers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have studied the relationship between carpet cleaning and Kawasaki Syndrome but do not know the exact cause.
Kawasaki Disease Foundation: “Is there a connection between carpet cleaning chemicals and Kawasaki disease? Researchers have concluded that there is no link between carpet cleaning chemicals and KD. This was a theory that was developed in the 1980’s and promoted widely when John Travolta’s son was diagnosed with the disease. However, researchers have dismissed all claims of any connection between the two, and they continue to study the disease to find the cause.”
Kawasaki syndrome, also called mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome (MLNS), is a disease of unknown cause that primarily affects children under 5 years of age.
Kawasaki syndrome and acute rheumatic fever are the two leading causes of acquired heart disease in children in the United States.
Kawasaki syndrome usually begins with a high fever that lasts for at least 5 days and is difficult to bring down with fever medication. The child then may develop redness in the white part of the eyes, a red throat and tongue, swelling of the lymph glands in the neck, a rash on the body and swelling of the hands and/or feet. Children with Kawasaki syndrome may be quite ill for several weeks and may require hospitalization. Nevertheless, most of them recover without complications.
Kawasaki syndrome is a relatively rare disease that is more likely to occur in the spring or winter. There have been no firm confirmed studies showing a direct link between carpet cleaning and Kawasaki syndrome. In most cases where a child had developed Kawasaki syndrome after the carpet in his or her house was cleaned, it was cleaned by a do-it-yourself method or the child entered the cleaned room within 2 hours of its being cleaned.
More than 4,200 cases of Kawasaki disease are being diagnosed annually in the United States. Fewer than 1 percent die. Kawasaki disease is an unusual and serious illness of young children that causes high fever, rash, red eyes and lips, swollen glands, and swollen hands and feet with peeling skin. The disease also causes damage of the coronary arteries in a quarter of untreated children and may increase the risk of atherosclerosis in early adulthood. The cause of Kawasaki disease is unknown, but it seems to be due to an infection in susceptible children. There is no diagnostic test for Kawasaki disease, and current treatment fails to prevent coronary damage in at least one in 10-20 children and death in one in 1,000 children.
It is best to keep young children (and pets) away from newly cleaned rugs and carpets for at least several hours.
Recent studies, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, have indicated that Kawasaki Syndrome is caused by a coronavirus related to the SARS virus.
“Kawasaki disease tends to run in families, suggesting that there are genetic components to disease risk,” says Jane C. Burns, M.D., professor and Chief, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Rheumatology, UC San Diego Department of Pediatrics.
Kawasaki Disease is more common in Japanese children and those of Asian descent, but it is found in all ethnic groups, affecting around 1 in 10,000 children of Caucasian descent. It is 10 to 20 times more common in Japanese and Japanese American children than in children of European descent.
Dr. Jane Burns of the University of California, San Diego, is the foremost expert on Kawasaki disease, but not a lot is understood about it. It’s a condition that causes arterial inflammation and also affects lymph nodes and mucous membranes. Symptoms include swelling, fever and even peeling skin. It’s a rare disease that mainly affects children younger than 4. It’s estimated that more than 4,000 children get the disease each year in the U.S., but it’s far more common in Asia, particularly in Japan, where 1 out of 150 children are infected. Scientists say it’s unclear how the disease spreads. But a few years ago,Dr. Burns started to notice a pattern: The disease appeared to be seasonal. “That meant that in January, February, March we were going to be very busy, and then in September, October, that was a good time to take our vacations,” she says. Japanese researchers noticed a similar pattern. Together, they worked with a group of climate scientists who started to analyze atmospheric data. What the climate researchers found was an association with the direction of wind circulating in the troposphere at heights of 3,000 meters, Dr. Burns says. When those wind currents blew in one direction, across Japan, then across the Pacific, to the West Coast and Hawaii, the number of U.S. cases increased. When the wind blew in the opposite direction, the number of cases fell. The data were so overwhelming that Dr. Burns and her team thought it couldn’t be coincidental. If this theory about Kawasaki disease is true, it could open up a whole new understanding of how other human pathogens are spread. No human disease has ever been shown to cross an ocean by wind and still remain infectious. Quoted from the NPR article titled A Windborne Clue To A Mysterious Childhood Disease