Fostering Global Collaboration Around Kawasaki Disease. Reflections From the 14th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium

the 14th International Kawasaki Disease Symposium (IKDS) took place in Montreal, Canada.This symposium, first held in 1984 in Hawaii, represents a long-standing history of an international meeting where clinicians and scientific investigators passionate about Kawasaki disease (KD) gather to share and solve the mysteries of a half-a-century-old acute inflammatory disease of childhood that can have life-threatening coronary artery complications. 1 The disease, initially described by a constellation of its clinical features (the mucocutaneous lymph node syndrome), carries the name of Doctor Tomisaku Kawasaki, the astute clinician who first described a cohort of 50 children in 1967.Since then, KD has grown to be the most common cause of acquired heart disease in most regions of the world.2e5 However, it is still a disease that is underserved in many parts of the world, with limited resources available to study its cause, bring diagnostic tools to market in partnership with industry sponsors, and develop new therapies.Given this, children with KD are still at high risk of being misdiagnosed or not having access to treatments to prevent life-threatening coronary artery aneurysms.In spite of all of this, clinicians, scientists, and patient advocates have been working for over 50 years to advance the care of children with KD worldwide.The scientific endeavours have ranged from animal to clinical research and from genetics to anthropology.The advances in KD research have helped improve pediatric health beyond just KD, as recently evidenced by the use of novel antiinflammatory therapies whose safety had been proven in KD for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.6e8