Kawasaki disease: a new disease?

Because the etiology of Kawasaki disease (KD) is still unknown, KD cannot yet be called a disease entity but is still regarded as a clinical entity. The 1999 paper by Sarah S. Long and the 1999 letter to the editor by Stanford T. Shulman were both examined. We must await the discovery of the etiology before we can make a definite statement whether or not KD is a new disease.