Kawasaki disease is a severe, noncontagious childhood illness
that causes inflammation of the blood vessels.
Symptoms of Kawasaki
disease include a fever for at least 5 days, red eyes, swollen red lips and
tongue, a rash, swollen feet and hands, and swollen lymph nodes in the
neck.
Early diagnosis and
treatment decreases the length of the illness and can prevent most blood vessel
and heart damage. Most children have no long-term problems. Infants and children whose fever
lasts more than 10 days are more likely to have complications related to blood
vessel damage, usually in the arteries of the heart (coronary arteries). In
rare cases, the damage can lead to a heart attack.