Does the COVID-19 pandemic and its mitigation measures reduce the incidence of Kawasaki Disease in children?
The incidence of Kawasaki Disease decreased by one-third in Japan during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, supporting the hypothesis that KD pathogenesis involves person-to-person transmission among children.
In this cohort study, the number of patients diagnosed with KD decreased by approximately one-third across Japan in 2020, with no indication that parents avoided a hospital visit. Differences in KD incidence reduction patterns before and after the initiation of COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures were found in patients with KD aged younger than 12 months compared with those 24 months or older, suggesting a potential KD pathogenesis involving transmission among children.
Ae et al. (2022) studied this question.