CLINICAL REVIEW Kawasaki disease

Parents worry about meningitis, but few have heard of Kawasaki disease, and most doctors have never seen a case. But Kawasaki disease is an important diagnosis not tomiss in febrile children because treatmentwithin the first 10 days of illness may prevent acute and long term coronary artery damage, which on rare occasions can be fatal. Diagnostic difficulty arises becausemany of the early clinical features of Kawasaki diseasemimic other more common self limiting febrile illnesses. To make an early diagnosis of Kawasaki disease doctors should have a high index of suspicion in an irritable child with five or more days of fever, irrespective of other clinical features. This article aims to give an overview of Kawasaki disease for doctors whomanage febrile children.