【川崎症 - 燒壞兒童心臟的殺手】
This disease had killed young children in Singapore.
Yesterday was the first time I had heard of the Kawasaki disease 川崎症 from a new client.
A Japanese doctor, Dr Tomisaku Kawasaki, first saw this in a 4-year old child in January 1961. He didn't know what was wrong and found no reference in the medical literature.
A year later, he saw the same disease in another child. That was his Eureka moment. It was an illness that did not exist in any medical textbook.
While a doctor brushed off Dr Kawasaki's hypothesis as "this may be just a scarlet fever", he persisted and eventually got this disease recognized in Japan in 1967, some 6 years later.
It is a disease that mainly affects children under 5 years old of all races and all continents. The blood vessels in the body gets inflamed and the child starts having a fever that can't be brought down with just aspirin. Usually it gets mistaken as "the usual viral fever".
Recently in Singapore, a pediatrician got suspended for misdiagnosing a 1-year old at Gleneagles Hospital. She failed to conduct the tests to confirm or rule out Kawasaki Disease, even though she thought of it. She continued treating it as a viral fever.
Other symptoms like strawberry tongue, swollen lymph nodes, red eyes, peeling skin, rashes in the groin, hands and feet and swollen red lips may start appearing in varying degrees.
It requires a echocardiogram to see if the child has heart problems and inflammation of coronary artieries, which supply blood to the heart muscles.
The first 10 days are critical for effective treatment. Miss this golden period and...
What is the worse that can happen?
Your young child can die from a heart attack. Happened in Singapore.
There are many young parents among my friends here. So I am writing this to spread awareness.
Over 6000 research papers have been written on the Kawasaki disease but no one could find the cause or etiology for this disease. So there is no vaccine or any way to prevent a child from contracting it. It is usually curable when detected early. Most children recover with no serious problems.
When my client shared with me what happened to her child, I immediately knew the Bazi and Feng Shui factors, that could lead up to a disease like this.
There are about 200 cases of Kawasaki Disease in Singapore a year.
50 years since its discovery, it still gets grossly misdiagnosed despite so many medical advancements.
The more we know about this disease, the more we can prevent other children and parents from suffering.
On a side note, remember to buy hospitalisation insurance for your children and do not hesitate to bring your child to the hospital or seek a second opinion, when the "normal" fever refuses to go away. Trust your parental instinct. Aspirin doesn't cure everything.
Photo credit: Intech
