Register here for Joseph Derisi, PhD: Rapid deployment of SARS-CoV-2 testing: the CLIAHUB
Dr. Rowley received her M.D. from the State University of New York, Syracuse in 1982. She received fellowship and postdoctoral training at Northwestern University School of Medicine, where she is now Professor. She is an expert in Kawasaki’s disease (KD), an illness where blood vessels become inflamed. Although KD is a rare disease, it is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in infants and children in the US. The etiology is unknown but suspected to be viral. Covid19-Associated Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome reported in children (MIS-C) is a rare, but severe condition that appears 2-4 weeks after the onset of Covid19. It is a consequence of hyper-inflammatory shock and shows similarities with KD. Dr. Rowley will discuss why at the outset of its identification, MIS-C was thought to be a form of KD (fulfilling the virus hypothesis), is now recognized to be different, and how a pandemic contributes to and improves understanding of rare diseases.