Page 72 - Living-on-the-frontline-of-COVID-19-in-MCO-and-CMCO

Aetiology of Kawasaki Disease

Up till now, despite aggressive investigation and research, we still could not find

the aetiology for Kawasaki Disease. What we know now is, it is possibly likely being
triggered by some ubiquitous infectious agent(s), and this triggering agent causes

asymptomatic infection, triggering immunologic cascade of Kawasaki Disease, and
these genetically susceptible individuals will present as Kawasaki Disease. Many
viruses were implicated before, that includes adenovirus, respiratory syncytial virus

(RSV). I’ve even seen dengue patients who subsequently developed Kawasaki
Disease because of persistent fever and this has been reported in Thailand as well.

The RNA viruses have also been implicated and have been proposed in 2 papers.
These 2 papers have suspected RNA viruses could be the cause of Kawasaki

Disease, originally. But now we know that it is only a triggering factor and other
triggering factors can also cause Kawasaki Disease.