48 - EPIDEMIOLOGY OF KAWASAKI DISEASE AFTER COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN JAPAN

  The number of KD patients in Japan was decreased by COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The decrease is attributed to a significant reduction in pediatric infectious diseases, resulting in a roughly 40% decrease in the number of KD patients compared to previous years. Since 2020, the occurrence of pediatric infectious diseases in Japan has changed compared to previous years, influenced by changes in people's infectious disease countermeasures. Respiratory syncytial (RS) virus infections typically tend to be prevalent during winter in Japan. However, there was an unusual outbreak of RS virus during the summer of 2021, representing a situation distinct from the period before COVID-19 pandemics. In this study, we investigated the epidemiology of KD between 2021 and 2022 in Japan by using the latest nationwide survey of KD in Japan.
   It was found that the number of KD patients between 2021 and 2022 had almost decreased compared to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic period. After the summer of 2021, the number of KD patients returned to levels observed before the COVID-19 pandemic period. The increase in KD patients was statistically correlated with an occurrence five weeks after the outbreak of the RSV infection. In the presentation, we will report the relationship between 10 pediatrics infectious diseases (respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection; pharyngoconjunctival fever; group A streptococcal (GAS) pharyngitis; infectious gastroenteritis; varicella; hand, foot, and mouth disease; erythema infectiosum; exanthema subitum; herpangina; and mumps) and KD. And we will discuss the onset mechanism of KD during and after COVID-19 pandemic.