My son had this at the age of 5 and came down with it about a week after I had cleaned my carpets:
When actress Kelly Preston’s son, Jett, was just 15 months old, he became very ill. A high fever and rash prompted Kelly and her husband, John Travolta, to rush Jett to the hospital. There, they heard what every parent dreads hearing–their son had come down with a rare disease. Jett was diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease, a childhood immune system disease that causes the inflammation of blood vessels throughout the body and, if untreated, may affect the heart. Though only about 15 out of 100,000 children under the age of five get the disease in the United States every year, it is the leading cause of acquired heart disease among kids here. Jett was diagnosed and treated early; he suffered no damage to his heart or other organs.
In the hospital, Kelly was asked to fill out a questionnaire, which contained questions about family habits and activities. One of the questions asked if the carpets in their home had been recently cleaned. "Until then, I thought that cleaning the carpets religiously was the healthy thing to do for my children," says Kelly. In fact, Kelly had the carpets cleaned frequently–and just prior to Jett’s illness. Was there a connection?
It’s hard to say. Scientists are not sure what causes Kawasaki Disease. A relationship between Kawasaki Disease and carpet cleaning was first reported in a case-control study published in 1982 in the medical journal, Lancet. Researchers investigating an outbreak in Denver found that 11 out of 23 of the children with Kawasaki Disease (48%) were living in homes where carpets had been shampooed within 30 days of the onset of symptoms; 10 of these children had played on the carpets two hours after they had been shampooed. In the control group (those who did not have the disease), only nine of 86 families (10%) had also shampooed carpets within 30 days.
Since the study was published, researchers have not been able to show a more conclusive link between carpet cleaners and Kawasaki Disease. A toxin-producing infectious agent–similar to those that cause Toxic Shock syndrome or scarlet fever–is considered a likely cause given the symptoms of the disease, according to many scientists. However, a bacterial or viral agent that might trigger the disease has not been identified.
Though the evidence of the relationship between Kawasaki Disease and carpet cleaners is not conclusive, there are plenty of other reasons to avoid using carpet cleaners in our homes. For more information, see Are Carpet Cleaners Unsafe? To help reduce any risk from the possible link between carpet cleaning and Kawasaki Disease, CHEC recommends that children stay out of the house for at least four hours after carpets have been cleaned by any method.
My son suffered horribly!!! I was glad when we moved to a house that had all wood floors!!!
Swalker
