Tomisaku Kawasaki, a pediatrician who discovered a rare inflammatory syndrome affecting young children that was subsequently named after him, has died at a Tokyo hospital, a medical research institute announced Wednesday. He was 95.
The Tokyo native died of old age Friday afternoon, the Japan Kawasaki Disease Research Center said. The syndrome has recently attracted renewed attention with an increasing number of children developing similar symptoms in Europe and the United States, raising concern over a possible link to the new coronavirus.
While treatments for Kawasaki disease have been mostly established, its cause has yet to be determined, with no decisive evidence supporting theories blaming a virus or bacteria.