National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

Kawasaki Syndrome | CDC

Kawasaki Syndrome
1990 Case Definition

NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Clinical Description

A febrile illness of greater than or equal to 5 days' duration, with at least four of the five following physical findings and no other more reasonable explanation for the observed clinical findings:

  • Bilateral conjunctival injection
  • Oral changes (erythema of lips or oropharynx, strawberry tongue, or fissuring of the lips)
  • Peripheral extremity changes (edema, erythema, or generalized or periungual desquamation)
  • Rash
  • Cervical lymphadenopathy (at least one lymph node greater than or equal to 1.5 cm in diameter)

Case Classification

Confirmed

A case that meets the clinical case definition

Comments

If fever disappears after intravenous gamma globulin therapy is started, fever may be of less than 5 days' duration, and the clinical case definition may still be met.
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Page last reviewed: April 16, 2021
Content source: Division of Health Informatics and Surveillance