Kawasaki Disease: Researchers Find Surprising Link To Wind Patterns
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 11th, 2011
Good morning!
Kawasaki Disease: Researchers Find Surprising Link To Wind Patterns
Part of a series investigating the complex linkages between human, animal and environmental health:The Infection Loop.
Dr. Jane C. Burns always takes her vacation in September and October. That’s when, she says, there is a “lull in the action.”
By action, she means the influx of children withKawasaki disease that she has come to expect during summer and winter months. Similar seasonal patterns are seen in other parts of the world, but no one has been able to explain why.
Now Burns and her colleagues think they may have found an important clue — blowing in the wind. Despite 50 years of research, the underlying cause of Kawasaki, a rare condition that involves the inflammation of blood vessels, remains unknown.
The interdisciplinary team of doctors and climatologists has linked large-scale wind patterns originating in central Asia to fluctuations in cases of the serious and sometimes fatal disease in Japan, San Diego and Hawaii. Their findings, detailed in the journal Nature’s Scientific Reports on Thursday, suggest that when these particular wind currents reverse — sweeping in from the south, in the case of Japan — the number of Kawasaki cases drop. A close look at data from these three regions found no associations with other environmental factors such as precipitation, temperature or dew point.
“If the winds blow in one direction, there is Kawasaki; if winds blow in the other, there is no Kawasaki. It’s very dramatic.” says Burns, a professor of pediatrics and director of the Kawasaki Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital.
Researchers are now looking at dust samples collected from winds over Japan in hopes of determining what virus, bacteria, fungi or other contagion — live or inert — ultimately triggers Kawasaki disease. And until that mystery is solved, no one can be certain of the wind’s true role.
If the Kawakasi agent does, in fact, traverse great distances by wind, it would be the first known human infectious disease agent to do so. Dust plumes have been known to travel internationally. And some pathogens of plants and animals such as European livestock Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever can blow around, but only over relatively short distances, said Guy Hendrickx, managing director of Avia-GIS, a Belgian company specializing in spatial information for health and agriculture research. His own research has found that insects carrying Bluetongue virus will fly with the wind over hundreds of miles — yet still not at the same high altitude and long distance suggested in the new Kawasaki research.
“Traveling with the aid of tropospheric winds should not be a problem for fungi, bacteria or even small cryptogams or other animals,” says Jesus Munoz Fuente, a scientist at Real Jardin Botanico in Spain, suggesting the creatures can survive the flight by protecting their DNA from UV rays with other binding substances — they can even survive with almost no water.
Some experts, however, are more skeptical. “I have never heard of such a close association between long-distance dispersal over oceans and outbreak of a human disease,” says Christopher Mundt, a professor of plant pathology at Oregon State University. “This is more likely to happen with plant pathogens, but even there it seems to be somewhat rare and not something that happens on a regular basis.” The correlations, he says, may have nothing to do with an agent being transported on the wind, but rather to something else associated with wind patterns.
Reported cases of Kawasaki disease are increasingly common in many parts of the world, particularly in Japan, where one out of 185 children will develop the disease before age 10. More than 12,000 cases have been reported in the country over the last year. Burns has also seen rising numbers in her San Diego clinic, although a growing awareness of the disease may be partially responsible. About 4,000 cases are reported in the U.S. each year, according to the American Heart Association.
In general, the disease is less recognizable outside of Japan and often mistaken for an inconsequential viral infection. Symptoms typically disappear on their own within a couple weeks. If not treated early, however, Kawasaki can cause irreversible heart damage. Burns recommends that parents consult a pediatrician if their child’s fever lasts for at least five days and is accompanied by a rash, red eyes and red lips.
“This is a very insidious disease,” says Burns. “The heart damage is silent. You have no way to know just looking at the child, but then in the child’s 20s or 30s, they may present with a heart attack due to damage to arteries that happened during childhood.”
In fact, she suggests that Kawasaki might be behind a number of the tragic heart-related deaths of young athletes. Only children with a genetic predisposition will get the disease, adds Burns, noting that Asian and African Americans have an increased susceptibility compared to other groups.
The ability to predict potential outbreaks of disease based on wind patterns, even without knowing nature of agent, has the potential to save lives, suggests Xavier Rodo, director of the Institut Catala de Ciencies del Clima in Catalunya, Spain, and lead author on the new paper.
Still, the lack of a known cause for the disease continues to be a major obstacle in disease prevention and treatment. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it can be hard to find it, experts note. The key problem: Like other autoimmune diseases, the causative agent need not be present when symptoms appear. So researchers are forced to look further upstream — as Burns and her team are currently doing.
“If there is a viral cause, one reason why it hasn’t been identified to date is that we strongly suspect it is a virus in some new viral family that has not been discovered,” says Dr. Anne Rowley, a leading expert in Kawasaki disease at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Her own research has found strong evidence to suggest a virus may be to blame.
So the hunt for the unknown continues. In March, researchers flew strategic sorties miles above Japan in the direction of the wind currents thought to be carrying the responsible agent. Ian Lipkin, a internationally recognized “virus hunter” at Columbia University in New York City, has begun analyzing dust samples collected by the specially designed filters in hopes of identifying candidate pathogens.
“There is a precedent for it, at least in the plant and animal world,” he says. “And in science, anything is possible.”
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November 11th, 2011 at 9:19 am
Zen Lill:
We found that article very interesting. The separation of peoples on you planet reminds me of the wars I participated in during our late Saumac Period. It was a time in which the 11 planets that made up the inhabited worlds in our 13 planted solar system, Ivqan, were at war for dominance in one area or another.
We had so weakened ourselves that Alyks entered the fray and conquered our entire solar system in a mere 9 earth years. They ruled Ivqan for 23 centuries. We were made slaves to a group of conquers that were so vastly different that they barely considered those of our solar system as equals.
I and about 380 million combatants had been marshaling our forces to attack each other from various points of opportunities when the Alyks entered our solar syatem from a time-accelerator unit(worm hole).
We were caught in their wake and slung back into a time and place of our galaxy we were not familiar. So rather than fight we were forced to cooperate to find a way out. It took 23 centuries for us to find our way back to Ivqan.
We returned to our beloved Ivqan with about I billion of our most capable warriors. We left behind another 17 billion family and fellow comrades. Our mission was to force the planets of our solar system to stop waring among themselves and make peace as we had.
I and about 130 thousand were the only ones still alive after all those centuries. We were the only ones who had ever seen our beloved Ivqan. We were still alive because of something the experience in the worm hole had imbued us with. Our scientist never were able to duplicate its ability to slow aging. We age a year as everyone around us age 112.
It had been little more than two decades to us as we approached or solar system. We did so cautiously because we assumed that the planets were still waring among themselves. This saved us from a surprise attack by the Alyks. We met their advance force and vanquished most of them.
The survivors told us a tale that put every one of us to grief. Our beloved Ivqan no longer existed as we had known it. More than half the population of the 11 planets had been sold into slavery or killed during the war with the Alyks or in servitude for their new masters.
We assumed the identities of our captors by those of us who were chameleons(beings that can assume the forms of others in appearance only). Manning the crafts that were not damaged in battle we entered our solar system. In 14 months we had substituted enough of theirs for ours to gain the advantage we needed to confront and defeat the Alyks.
That was about 35 of your centuries ago and I have aged another 31 years. My beloved Ivgan is at peace. We operate as 11 planets of one peoples. All 99 billion plus of us work together for the benefit of us all.
The Alyks returned but they were turned back by the combined forces of Ivgan. Perhaps it will take a world threat to unite your peoples.
Eton
November 11th, 2011 at 10:10 am
We are sending our replacements to Guam aboard the Horizon. Those of you who wish to replace other humans aboard need to have your request done by 1400hrs today PST.
The ship is loaded with illegal animals, insects, reptiles, drugs, and other items the humans wish to sneak into Guam or the other islands via Guam.
Their efforts to avoid discovery will afford us the opportunity to complete our missions with ease and enable us to pass without discovery.
This is the last opportunity to use Horizon. But those of you who can not make this need not despair. The Matson will replace the Horizon as the second liner service to Guam.
They are even more corrupt which is a testimony to their forcing Horizon out of the completion. We will do well with them.
U17/nathon
November 11th, 2011 at 1:52 pm
Gi11s/02 Eton, thank you for the interesting story of your own in return. I wholeheartedly agree with your final statement, that perhaps it will take a world threat to unite all people here on earth. To me, it seems we are far too caught up in color/religion/gender differences to see anything clearly…and i suppose that that is exactly what the powers that be (our 1% elite and their political puppets) want us to be doing. If we’re busy watching what the ‘left hand’ is doing, well that right one is busy doing all kinds of destructive things, I’ll ask you: do you see us evolving past all that color/religion/gender stuff or are we basically doomed for 30 or so centuries?
Mischa, I have never heard of this disease, thank you, will reread and send along, it could save some guessing for some one.
Luv, Zen Lill
November 12th, 2011 at 12:57 am
[...] Tagline: Science's newest miracle…is a mistake. See » Movie: Splice (2009) “Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical…/p> [...]
November 12th, 2011 at 4:38 am
Hafa adai
What is happening to my island?
=====================
Ecological fears on Guam after a fire ani infestation
Posted at 20:55 on 11 November, 2011 UTC
Fire ants have been found on Guam for the first time and scientists are worried they could contribute to an ecological disaster.
The ants were found last Thursday by staff from the Beetle Eradication Group in northern Guam.
University of Guam entomologist Ross Miller says fire ants are a threat to vegetation, other insects, geckos and baby birds.
They are also capable of stinging humans, resulting in rashes.
Dr Miller says it is not known how far around the island the ants have spread.
“What we’re worried about though, because it is a very heavy infestation that if we can’t get rid of it very quickly it will keep expanding.
And again if we have it on other sites that we don’t know about then the ants will gradually spead throughout the land, and then we would expect some very severe ecological effects”
Dr Miller says if anyone comes across fire ants they should take them into the Natural and Applied Science department at the University of Guam.
November 12th, 2011 at 5:02 am
Listen to these bastards excuse the behavior of Mike McQueary. None of them care what is happening to the 10 year old boy.
All you hear these white bastards say is how terrible it must have been for Mike McQueary.
They are sick. This shows you why they can do such despicable things without a conscious.
Mable
November 12th, 2011 at 5:03 am
Sorry I forgot the link
http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/7219828/no-one-seems-really-know-former-penn-state-assistant-coach-jerry-sandusky
November 12th, 2011 at 5:13 am
Ditto Helen:
Did you notice that with this sentence they are willing to accept genetics for a white man being a pedophile?
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Studies show that roughly half of child molesters were abused at some point in their lives, Finkelhor said. But there are a variety of other factors, too. He says some experts believe genetics, developmental experiences and prenatal issues might be involved.
———————————
Those are the same people who refuse to accept genetics as a possible reason someone is gay. Self serving narcissistic white boys.
Helen
November 12th, 2011 at 5:18 am
Watching that link made me want to puke when they played the clip with the students saying this is the real penn state, showing their concern for the victims and then saying watch the game Saturday.
Damn I was embarrassed to be white. I could hear Robert saying see the bastards just want to promote the game and the school because that was what I was thinking.
Their promotion attempts stink. It is all about them. They could care less about the victims.
Barbara
November 12th, 2011 at 5:49 am
Mable when I read you complaint. I racked it up to be another OTW rant until I saw the tape.
We were not alone in our disgust. I saw this comment that reflected my feelings closest.
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So what’s the deal with this Ritchie guy in the clip with the ESPN idiot reporters? They go through this whole production of just how unreal this whole scene was.
So unbelievably surreal. So utterly outlandish. So ridiculous for some one of such great stature on the campus.
A scene so disturbing from a man of such importance to them, they understand not reacting by immediately stopping it. They actually just condoned it.
They say if they witnessed the shower scene, they also would not immediately stop it, because the guy was of such great importance, “he was number two in the Penn State football pecking order”.
Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t care who I seen doing that to a child was. I wouldn’t consider their profession, their awards, their accolades, their success, their money, their influence, their power, their weapons or their size.
I see that happening, I AM GOING TO STOP IT, NOW! I may get my rear end handed to me in the process, but that kid’s torture would end there.
Those ESPN reporters need to watch that clip then self-punish, absolutely brainless. ESPN shame.less
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It may seen harsh to say it. But people you know it is true. This was so a white thing. Looking the other way when a important white man is sexually abusing a defenseless victim.
I’ll be nice and only name one, Strom Thurmond, US senator until he died on the job in his nineties. The bastard raped and impregnated young black girls at will. They new about it and looked the other way.
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Between the serial killing and the child molesting it is mostly a sick male race. That is why those ESPN people could talk that way because they forgot the camera and became themselves alone talking in private the way white boys do.
The experience of walking into a locker room discovering the coach raping a 10 year old boy would be about THEIR feelings not the 10 year old victim.
If they were really alone, the jokes would have come out, it would have ended in some good laughs and that would be it.
November 12th, 2011 at 5:59 am
316
No. 316 of 365
Tell a joke:
Q. Why should liberals be buried 100 feet below the ground?
A. Because deep down they are really good people.
========REBUTTAL========
How sick are these people and their core to know that this joke would be acceptable.
Robert
November 12th, 2011 at 6:35 am
Actually no one said anything. Here is the grand jury testimony.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2011/1107/espn_e_Sandusky-Grand-Jury-Presentment.pdf
November 12th, 2011 at 7:09 am
They just don’t get it. Ordinary people are rising up and demanding that our country work for the 99%, but Congress is still acting like nothing has changed.
In less than two weeks, the Super Committee will unveil their deficit reduction plan. And instead of focusing on creating jobs and making the rich pay their fair share, all indications are that Congress will once again protect the 1% at the expense of the 99%—unleashing up to $1.2 trillion in vicious, job-killing cuts that could hit Medicare, Social Security, and other programs the middle class relies on.
We’ve got just 12 days left to stop them—and our only chance is massive, coordinated action to let them know we will not stand for more of the same disastrous policies.
Democrats on the Super Committee have already offered $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, even though Republicans still refuse to raise taxes on the wealthy.1 And any deal that the Super Committee reaches will be incredibly dangerous. Part of the debt ceiling deal this summer was that the Super Committee’s report would get a straight up-or-down vote in both houses of Congress immediately—making it very hard to stop once the train has left the station.
Our plan for November 17 is to hold events at the very places where Congress could be creating jobs to get Americans back to work: crumbling bridges, understaffed schools, and other examples of critical infrastructure in disrepair. We need to remind Congress—and our fellow community members—that there’s plenty of work that needs doing in America, if only Washington would focus on the right things. And we need to show Congress how huge the backlash will be if they push through yet another disastrous deal.
Can you join us in San Francisco to stand up for the 99%?
November 12th, 2011 at 7:48 am
Please do not lump the entire white race into a pot with America’s white trash. We Italians are appalled at their behavior. Each accounting shows more and more that america’s white males are disgusting replicas of a human being.
The witness to a 10 old being raped thinks first of who is doing the raping;
The coach thinks first of what the perpetrator means to his chances of winning
The President thinks of what a scandal could do to the school’
The student body thinks of who was fired
The publicity campaign to repair the school’s image thinks of the Saturday game
So now Huffington post says the University was going to allow McQueary who witnessed a 10 year old boy being sodomized by Sandusky coach the game. The only moral issue they had was whether to allow him to do it on the field or from a Box in the stands.
Then we hear that the University decided not to allow McQueary to coach. Before a sigh of relief that some white person in America had a moral conscious, the we learn that the only reason they removed him is because he was getting death threats.
=====================================
On Thursday morning, interim coach Tom Bradley stated that McQueary would be coaching on Saturday against Nebraska, while admitting that he did not know whether the position coach would be on the sideline or in the press box. But later Thursday evening, the university announced on GoPSUSports.com that McQueary would not coach against Nebraska.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Due to multiple threats made against Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, the University has decided it would be in the best interest of all for Assistant Coach McQueary not to be in attendance at Saturday’s Nebraska game.
Earlier, the Penn State Board of Trustees asked Bradly to keep McQueary from coaching due to safety concerns.
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Holly Shit what a bunch of hypocrites that race of white claiming to have formed such a christian nation is. They are pieces of self serving beasts. Someone needs to ask them – What about the victim, you dirt bags.
Penn is so concerned about the safety of a 6’64″ 265 lbs man who walked away from the sodomizing of a 10 year old child. He should be left to fend for himself as he did that child.
VAlentina
November 12th, 2011 at 7:50 am
I’m sorry if this offends any one but I have to say it.McQueary Spero che tu marcisca all’inferno.
Valento
November 12th, 2011 at 7:52 am
The bottom line is that no one told because Penn State football is the biggest money maker in Happy Valley, and that takes precedence over any other considerations, no matter what.
Paterno didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to lose a football game, and McQueary didn’t call the police because he didn’t want to get in trouble with the school authorities for causing a scandal that would make Penn State lose a football game.
A scandal means fewer people at the games which is lost revenue all around, and we can’t have that now, can we?
November 12th, 2011 at 7:53 am
believe McQueary should be prosecuted right along with Sandusky he seen a crime being committed and didn’t go to the police, isn’t that called a conspiracy to a crime?
I have no sympathy for a man receiving threats because he wasn’t man enough to stop a child from being harmed. As for Sandusky i hope when they send him to jail they send him to the part where men hate child predators. McQueary you and everyone else who kept quiet for so long are all sorry excuse for a men!
November 12th, 2011 at 7:59 am
This from Huffpost community moderator I think sums up hypocrisy of white america.
“Remember the little child in China that was hit by a car, twice, and no one came to her rescue? Remember how passerby after passerby walked by the injured child offering no assistance. And people wondered what was wrong with the culture of China. Now we have a mountain of a man who turned his back on a child being assaulted, left him with his attacker. And we have numerous people who new just what was going on and did little to nothing. And we have college kids rallying to support a coach that was complicit in these crimes. What is wrong with American culture?”
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Add to that if this had been an OTW there would be foaming at the mouth by right wing hypocrites demanding his head and everybody’s that covered it up.
Nancy
November 12th, 2011 at 8:30 am
How in the hell can you see a ten year old being abused & not run to the authorities quick. Somebody please tell me what is wrong with that picture?
I would have screamed to the top of my lungs & grabbed that baby & then put my 9 size shoe up his ass & ran with this child screaming for help.
And after the authorities got there I would have told them where this Monster/pedophile/criminal was because he is not be hard to find because my shoe is up his ass.
This is a disgrace to the human race, no one cared about this baby, old as Mr.McQueary was he could have kicked this old mans ass.
I’m furious about this & there is no justification for this & all involved should pay, I’m tired of them sweeping criminal activity under the rug, the real question here is, who is gonna watch the adults??????
November 12th, 2011 at 9:46 am
anonymous #16 summed it up and you heard it n the video, in most parts of PA football is IT, the money, the media attention and the fame of JoePa.
Why McJackAss didn’t stop Sandusky in his tracks is insane, even that A-hole footballer on the video said it, he would’ve ran (flee is the word, bc he wouldn’t have been able to ‘take it in’) bc they’re all cowards and bc Sandusky is 2nd in command. What’s to take in, there’s a 10 yr old getting raped, save him, what’s to think about or take in’?
…and he made it sound like in ‘normal’ circumstances (as if walking into a public shower and seeing this scene would be ‘normal’ anywhere) he wouldn’t have been such a coward – so – it was/is about protecting a potential ‘scandal’ for Penn (and hiding a child rapist/pedophile is a small price to pay to JoePa and others?).
Sandusky is clearly a sick individual living a double life, the normal ‘altruistic’ one and the one raping the boys he was supposed to be helping, what a great disguise for a pedophile ‘coach as helper/rapist’, it’s only second to the catholic church ‘priest as redeemer/rapist’ – I hope they all burn in hell, I think that was Valentina’s sentiment, no?
Just my two…and when we start rating football higher than human children we have already defined ‘american culture’ haven’t we? & what kind of curriculum is this higher education institution teaching bc the students are openly stupid and clueless…
Luv (all of you) just po’d that people are OK with covering up shit like this, we have people who spend a lot of time helping animals bc they have no voice, and I’m all for that, though…what about human children and this boy in particular, he had no voice in this. Just like an animal, no voice. – ZL