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Kawasaki Disease : An Autoimmune Disease

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Kawasaki Disease is a rare, life threatening autoimmune heart disease that is rarely taught even in medical school. Kawasaki Disease is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys healthy blood vessels in the body, specifically targeting the hearts blood vessels and arteries. The immune system instead goes against the body and destroys the body, instead of viruses and dangerous foreign substances. Kawasaki Disease affects only one in 271,440 people in the world, yet it continues to take away lives and children are still being misdiagnosed, threatening their lives (“Kawasaki Disease Awareness”). One of out 271,440 people does not sound likely or worrisome to affect a loved one, but this horrific disease is becoming more and more common. It is imperative to be informed and have an understanding of what Kawasaki Disease is in order to be aware of it. It is important to be informed of the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and the short-term and long-term effects of the disease so that awareness can be spread, and ultimately lives can be saved (“Kawasaki Disease”). Kawasaki Disease, also known as “KD”, is a hereditary disease, which is the passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from one
Gutierrez 2 generation to another. KD is most common to occur in children under the age of five, but there have been some cases of adults being diagnosed with it. It is ten to twenty times more common to have Kawasaki Disease if the person is of

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