sciencetech-blog

comments

Kawasaki disease affects over 12,000 children a year in Japan and now scientists are one step closer to understanding one of the world's most mysterious illnesses.

Experts have found that the disease is deadliest when the wind blows from north eastern China, suggesting that it is caused by an airborne toxin that originates from the region.

However, more research is needed the pinpoint which toxin it could be.

The answer is blowing in the wind? Kawasaki disease affects over 12,000 children a year in Japan and experts might be one step closer to understanding the disease, which triggers a rash (pictured left) and peeling of the skin on hands (right) as they think it is caused by an airborne toxin originating from north eastern China

The disease strikes children in Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, who are most at threat before their fifth birthday.

Symptoms of the disease include a red rash, fever, swelling and peeling of the skin on the hands and feet. Left untreated, it can cause internal bleeding and heart attacks.

Some scientists are divided as to whether Kawasaki is an infection or an immune response to a toxin.

The new study built on previous work that suggested that large cases of the disease coincide with prevailing winds from Central Asia, Science Mag reported.

Mathematical ecologist Xavier Rodó of the Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, studied Japanese health records between 1970 and 2010 to pinpoint the days on which the most cases were identified in Tokyo and other large cities.

The experts used computer models to find out where the air had come from in the previous few days and discovered that on the days most children became ill, the air had come from the same region in north west China (marked in red as well as Japan and South Korea where cases of Kawasaki disease were reported). The air typically took two days to reach Japan, where the children became sick half a day later

His team used computer models of airflow to find out where the air had come from in the previous few days and discovered that on the days most children became ill, the air originated from the same region in north west China.

The air typically took two days to reach Japan, where the children became sick half a day later, according to the study in PNAS.

From the study, the researchers have surmised that the disease is airborne and has an incubation period of just half a day.

They ruled out the possibility that Kawasaki is an infection that spreads between children, because the vast majority of youngsters in large cities fell ill on the same days.

The disease strikes children in Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, who are most at threat before their fifth birthday. Symptoms of the disease include a red rash, fever and peeling of the skin on the hands and feet (pictured left and right). Left untreated, it can cause internal bleeding and heart attacks

The peak of the infection also died away when the wind changed direction and did not follow a typical pattern for a contagious infection.

'It must be in the form of a toxin or some other environmental agent,' Dr Rodó said.

The region thought to be the source of the toxin – the Northeast China Plain - is highly agricultural so it is suspected that the toxin could be made by a fungus living on crops.

The experts collected air samples by flying in the opposite direction to the prevailing winds.

They found lots of species of Candida - a fungus genus responsible for common human infections – but the scientists are not claiming this fungus is the root of the problem.