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janrinok writes:

One of the world's most baffling diseases may be spread by the wind. A new study [sciencemag.org] has found that Kawasaki disease, which sickens 12,000 children a year in Japan and occurs in other countries including the United States and South Korea, is at its deadliest when the wind blows from northeastern China. The findings suggest that the illness may be caused by an airborne toxin from that region, but just which one remains unclear.

Kawasaki disease typically strikes children between 6 months and 5 years old. Common symptoms include fever, a blotchy red rash, and redness and sometimes peeling of the hands and feet. It can be treated with antibodies; untreated, it often leads to inflammation of the coronary arteries, sometimes causing aneurysms that can lead to internal bleeding or heart attacks. Some researchers believe Kawasaki to be an infection, but they have never identified the microbe responsible; others suggest it's an immune response to an unidentified toxin.

In previous research, mathematical ecologist Xavier Rodo and colleagues at the Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, had suggested that seasons with large numbers of Kawasaki cases in both Japan and the United States coincide with times when the prevailing winds come from Central Asia. In the new work, they investigated that idea further.

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