Tomisaku Kawasaki

Tomisaku Kawasaki (川崎 富作, Kawasaki Tomisaku^?, born February 7, 1925) is a Japanese pediatrician.

Kawasaki disease is named after him. He published a description in Japanese in 1967, and a description in English in 1974.

He first observed the condition in 1960.

He completed his M.D. from the School of Medicine, Chiba University in 1948.

After the discovery of Kawasaki Disease, in Japan, there were several activities of etiology research groups, but there has been no established theory. He has been active in this field, and established "Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center" in 1990 and later a non-profit organization "Japan Disease Research Center".

From "Clinicians' Battles, Doctors whose names are found in the disease, (2000), edit. Itakura E. Medical Sense, Tokyo, in Japanese.

It was in january 1961 that I encountered a child patient, aged 4 years and 3 months, who was to become the first known case of Kawasaki disease. Fifty years have elapsed since then. At the time, I had no choice but to discharge the patient as ”diagnosis unknown.” Fortunately, the child suffered no sequelae, and is currently enjoying a full and active life as an adult. Since then the incidence of Kawasaki disease has continued to grow. Why? Why can’t we stop this disease? The reason, unfortunately, is that its cause is not known. At the time I first described the disease, I felt that we were on the threshold of discovering its cause, since its symptoms were extremely clear-cut. Despite the efforts of numerous researchers, however, we are still searching. It is my strong hope that young researchers will be able to identify the root cause of this disease.

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