Wind currents linked to Kawasaki Disease. November 12, 2011.
Kawasaki Disease is a childhood disease that is most common in Japan and can result in irreversible heart damage. Although the seasonal nature of the disease in Japan and other regions has long been understood, the reasons for changes in the spread of KD have remained shrouded in mystery. Now a team of researchers compiled by Jane Burns has published a paper in Nature Scientific Reports and received widespread media attention by revealing how fluctuations in the number of KD cases accompany shifts in patterns of prevailing wind. Climatologist Xavier Rodó, the study's first author, claims that, "the Japanese dataset revealed that a low number of KD cases were reported prior to the epidemics, a period coinciding with winds from the south which blew across Japan from the Pacific Ocean during the summer months." However, "the numbers rapidly mounted all over Japan when winds turned and blew from the northwest, a trajectory from the Asian continent. After the peaks, the winds again shifted, blowing from the south when the number of cases again decreased."
These findings suggest an infectious agent is carried across the ocean by air currents in the upper troposphere, and offer hope for isolating the cause of the disease. The study also suggests new possibilities for students of the relationship between climate changes and human history, because shifts in wind currents have been associated with climatic fluctuations past and present. The need for research into changes in wind patterns - an important aspect of my own work - has never been more pressing.
These findings suggest an infectious agent is carried across the ocean by air currents in the upper troposphere, and offer hope for isolating the cause of the disease. The study also suggests new possibilities for students of the relationship between climate changes and human history, because shifts in wind currents have been associated with climatic fluctuations past and present. The need for research into changes in wind patterns - an important aspect of my own work - has never been more pressing.