Jun 11, 2020 (NHK) - A Japanese pediatrician who discovered Kawasaki disease -- a syndrome of blood vessel inflammation among young children with unknown causes -- has died. Kawasaki Tomisaku was 95.
The Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center says he died of old age at a hospital in Tokyo on June 5.
Kawasaki was born in Tokyo in 1925. While working at the pediatrics department of the predecessor of the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, he noticed that some infants had a high fever and a rash across their bodies, and their tongues were swollen like strawberries.
In 1967, he reported for the first time in the world the symptoms of 50 patients as a new disease with unknown causes. The illness later became known internationally as "Kawasaki disease."
More than 15,000 people develop the disease in Japan each year. Some patients suffer from heart problems.
Kawasaki led a health ministry team to try to determine the causes of the disease and develop methods for diagnosis and treatment.
After retiring from the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center in 1990, he served as head of the Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center. He continued his research while giving advice to patients and their parents.
The illness is drawing renewed attention as there are reports from Western countries that some children with the coronavirus developed inflammation in various organs -- a symptom similar to that of Kawasaki disease.
