Participants:
Series Code: CVNU
Program Code: CVNU000008S
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00:09 Hello, and welcome to Coronavirus Report.
00:12 We are so glad to have you here with us. 00:14 I'm in the presence of Pastor Stephen Bohr, 00:18 speaker, director, president of Secrets Unsealed, 00:21 and Dr. Milton Teske who is the health officer for Kings County, 00:25 and also happens to be the chairman of our board. 00:28 And I'm C.A. Murray. 00:29 And we're trying to give you a perspective 00:32 that is particularly Christian. 00:35 There is so much talk about coronavirus, 00:37 so many things that are being said, 00:39 but we're trying to give you just a little something extra, 00:41 a little something that you may not hear 00:43 on the regular news. 00:45 Dr. Teske is steeped in the knowledge in this work. 00:49 And as a Christian physician, he brings a very unique 00:53 and wonderful perspective 00:55 that we like to mine each and every week 00:57 when you're here with us. 00:59 So we want to thank you for joining us today. 01:01 And hopefully we can say something that will be of 01:03 interest and import to you. 01:05 Good doctor, I want to start of... 01:08 In fact, let's have a word of prayer, 01:10 and then we'll launch off into our first question. 01:12 Father God, again we thank You and praise You 01:14 for this opportunity to give information 01:17 from a Christian perspective given from men who have 01:20 dedicated their lives and their hearts to You. 01:23 Speak through us so that what we say can be of value 01:26 to Your people. 01:27 In Jesus' name, amen. 01:29 Amen. 01:30 Each week when we come we've got a new term, 01:33 or new word, or something new that you sort of spring on us. 01:37 And this week's new word is Kawasaki. 01:41 Now I had heard about this syndrome, of course, 01:44 keeping tabs on what happens in New York, 01:46 but I didn't hear the name until just a few minutes ago 01:49 when we were talking together. 01:50 It is Kawasaki. 01:52 Not the motorcycle, not the automobile. 01:55 But Kawasaki; explain what that is and the affect that it 01:59 seems to be having on young people. 02:01 Okay, so Kawasaki disease was first described by Kawasaki 02:06 and gave it his name. 02:07 But it's been around for a while, so it's not a 02:10 new disease, but it's new in its association 02:14 with the coronavirus, with this COVID-19. 02:19 It's a syndrome, or it's a group of symptoms that come together, 02:22 and it affects children primarily, 02:24 although it can affect adults. 02:26 For some reason most all the victims of Kawasaki 02:30 are children, often under 5 years of age 02:33 makes up the largest group of them. 02:36 And it can be quite serious and fatal in cases. 02:40 Although, again, it's a fairly rare syndrome. 02:44 It has to do with the body's immune system being triggered 02:49 and fired up in a certain way that it starts attacking 02:52 the body and causing this group of symptoms. 02:55 And of course, some of the severe complications 02:58 that can go with it that we're seeing now with this. 03:02 Nobody understands exactly how and why it's triggered, 03:05 but it's associated with different viral diseases. 03:08 Sometimes Epstein Barr virus infection 03:11 can trigger Kawasaki disease. 03:13 Sometimes an adenovirus. 03:15 Sometimes some of the older coronaviruses that have 03:18 been around for a long time. 03:19 But just recently they've been realizing that 03:22 they're seeing quite a number of children 03:25 that have this Kawasaki disease associated with the coronavirus, 03:29 this new COVID-19 virus. 03:34 So here's what it is. 03:37 It's a group of symptoms. 03:39 There is no blood test, no lab test, we can do 03:42 to say you're Kawasaki positive or negative. 03:45 So it's not... 03:46 It makes it difficult to diagnose because today 03:49 doctors want to test for everything and want to 03:52 just let the lab tell them you have got it or don't have it. 03:56 This takes clinical acumen. 04:00 You've got to actually talk to the patient, look at them, 04:04 and see what their symptoms are. 04:07 Now actually it's quite recognizable. 04:11 And hopefully if you have children, if one of them 04:15 should start to be affected with this, you would recognize it 04:18 and direct them to appropriate medical care right away. 04:22 It is a disease where its treatment 04:25 does make a difference. 04:26 There is some treatment for it. 04:28 And treatment can significantly lessen the serious outcomes 04:33 to do with the heart and even fatalities. 04:38 You'll want to remember these and look them up 04:42 and keep an eye out for them if you have children. 04:47 Noticeable there's a fever. 04:49 Fever can come and go at different times. 04:51 Well, this isn't anything new or different from anything else. 04:55 The more characteristic things are you get inflammation 04:59 of the mucus membranes and you start to 05:01 get, like, conjunctivitis. 05:02 The eyes kind of get red and watery. 05:06 But it affects the mucus membranes in the mouth. 05:09 They can become inflamed and erythematous. 05:14 The lips; the lips become very red. 05:16 You know, cherry red lips. 05:18 Sometimes there will be fissures or cracks on the lips as well. 05:23 So that's a fairly characteristic look. 05:26 The mucus membranes on down into the gut. 05:31 And they often have very painful or sever diarrhea 05:34 associated with it. 05:36 So you've got those. 05:37 There's lymph nodes that form in the neck right here, 05:41 although they can in other parts of the body as well, 05:43 but particularly those little bumps that swell up 05:45 and are quite tender in the neck area is associated with it. 05:49 And then there is the rash. 05:51 And it's not like most rashes, little bumps and spots. 05:55 It's just the face turns really red. 05:58 Erythema is what we call it. 06:00 But the skin just turns really red. 06:03 And together with that bright red lips. 06:06 You can get that redness on the palms of the hands, 06:09 or the soles of the feet will often turn red. 06:12 On the hands and feet, when you get that redness there, 06:15 a lot of times there's also where the skin starts peeling 06:20 around the fingernails. 06:22 Kind of the skin around there starts peeling back there. 06:24 Or on the toenails, the same thing there. 06:27 And so, these are the outside things that we often see 06:31 associated with this. 06:34 Now the tricky part is, not everybody gets all of those. 06:38 And of course, you know, a lot of those are sort of common. 06:42 I mean, how many things cause diarrhea? 06:43 How many things cause a fever? 06:45 How many things cause conjunctivitis? 06:48 You know, so there's a lot of things there, 06:50 so it's a disease that is sometimes missed. 06:53 But it's one we don't want to miss because 06:55 there is treatment for it. 06:57 And the concern with Kawasaki is not those outward symptoms 07:02 that we've just talked about. 07:03 Because those, you know, they'll go away with time. 07:07 But it affects the blood vessels. 07:11 Now we've talked before about coronavirus attacking, 07:14 you know, the lining of the arteries here. 07:18 But this creates what we call vasculitis. 07:21 In other words, the immune system 07:23 starts attacking the arteries. 07:26 And as it attacks these arteries, this vasculitis, 07:29 this inflammation of the arteries, it causes 07:33 them to dilate. 07:37 Because they dilate, they particularly can affect 07:39 the arteries in the heart. 07:41 The most serious place. 07:42 Although it can affect arteries in other places as well. 07:46 To particularly note, one of first things a doctor 07:49 that suspects Kawasaki is going to do, particularly 07:52 if he gets it early on, is you want to get 07:55 an echocardiogram of the heart. 07:57 In other words, we're going to take an ultrasound, 08:00 put it over the chest, and look very carefully 08:02 at all the parts of the heart, particularly at the arteries. 08:06 And they'll want to know their baseline because 08:09 as this Kawasaki progresses those arteries can dilate, 08:14 and in some places they can form aneurysms. 08:18 That means the artery just swells up and it's got this, 08:21 you know, very abnormal balloon-like that forms 08:25 there in the artery. 08:26 Those can clot off and cause a heart attack in the heart. 08:31 They can form, you can get the aneurysms in other 08:34 arteries as well, but the heart seems to be the big concern. 08:37 It's really affected there. 08:40 So we want to follow that very closely. 08:44 ~ Doctor, it sounds like, you said syndromes, 08:47 so you've got a constellation of things that you're dealing with. 08:51 It sounds like this is very painful. 08:53 Like the child is really suffering along with the 08:55 corona, the COVID. 08:57 This other thing on top of that makes for a lot of suffering 09:00 during the time that the child is sick. 09:02 ~ Well yes, I'm mean, they've got a fever, 09:03 they're miserable, and frequently diarrhea, 09:05 which is often very painful and miserable 09:07 in this particular case. 09:09 So yeah, the kid is sick. 09:10 It's not just running around, 09:12 "Oh, I didn't notice my face was red." 09:14 This is a kid that's sick, you know. 09:16 They've got fever, they've... 09:19 But this particular thing, the red face, the red hands 09:22 or feet, or the really red cracked lips, you know. 09:26 Those are kind of characteristic. 09:28 When you see them with this picture, it's like, 09:31 wait a minute. 09:32 This isn't just something ordinary. 09:34 This is the Kawasaki. 09:36 The child is so young, you're saying five or under, 09:39 he may not be able to articulate what he's going through, 09:41 so you've really got to be diligent to watch. 09:44 Because you've got to pick up and speak for the child 09:46 who may not be able to say, "I'm sick. 09:48 I've got a lot of things going on." 09:50 ~ But mom will notice. 09:53 Yes, I've often found... 09:55 You know, I've been doing emergency medicine 09:57 for the last 36 years. 09:59 If you talk to mom, she'll tell you what's wrong with her kid. 10:02 You know, moms know what's going on with their kids. 10:05 And they'll tell you, "No, look at this, this. 10:07 This isn't normal." 10:09 And that's very useful. 10:11 Just as a side, in other areas, one of the very difficult 10:15 things is a neurological exam in a small child. 10:19 But all you've got to do is ask mom, "Hey, is this normal 10:22 for him or is this not normal for him?" 10:24 She'll say, "Wait, wait, no this isn't him. 10:26 This is not usual, okay." 10:28 That trumps anything I say right there, you know, that I see. 10:32 Because, hey, mom knows that kid. 10:35 She knows his behavior, she knows the nuances of it, 10:38 and she says, "No, this isn't right." 10:41 So I place a lot of weight on what mom says about their kid. 10:49 Physicians that have been around for a while will. 10:52 They realize that mom knows what's going on; she'll tell ya. 10:56 Now she may not know what you know about medicine, 10:58 but she knows about her kid. 11:00 And she knows this isn't right, this is different than usual. 11:02 And so, you know, moms out there, you'll know 11:06 that this is common there. 11:08 But when you see these pieces that we're talking about, 11:11 that's when you want to get to the pediatrician right away. 11:13 You'll want to get in so you can get medical help right away. 11:16 Because there are some things they can do that can 11:18 reverse or significantly shorten or stop the progression 11:23 of this vasculitis that's affecting the arteries. 11:26 The big concern is vasculitis affecting the arteries. 11:30 And we can do that. 11:31 And the treatment; two things. 11:34 They will put the child on aspirin. 11:38 It's an anti-inflammatory and it helps cut that down. 11:41 They'll put them on a, you know, high dose, 11:43 anti-inflammatory dose initially, and then a more 11:46 maintenance dose will finish out the course of the illness. 11:50 And then the other thing is IV immunoglobulins. 11:57 This is a preparation that's actually made from 12:01 someone else's blood where they've drawn the blood, 12:03 separated out the plasma, and they've concentrated 12:06 the immunoglobulins, these antibodies 12:09 in other people's blood. 12:11 And they give those as a general set of antibodies, 12:16 and it seems to work quite well. 12:18 Often, a single large infusion significantly 12:21 reduces the symptoms. 12:22 If the fever still continues within a day, 12:25 they may give a second, or rarely even a third dose 12:27 of the immunoglobulins. 12:29 But it can really keep it from advancing in this dilation 12:35 and keep it from forming these aneurysms. 12:38 And it somehow blocks the immune system. 12:42 There's these various proteins in there, and they're 12:44 normalizing and blocking out this abnormal immune reaction 12:48 that's causing the vasculitis. 12:50 It's not necessarily an antibody that's killing 12:53 the virus, per se, as in the, you know, when we talked about 12:59 the plasma therapy for COVID-19. 13:02 This is a general immunoglobulin and somehow it tends to 13:06 help the body's immune system get back on the right keel 13:11 and stop destroying the arteries. 13:16 You know, I had heard of this new manifestation 13:21 of the coronavirus, but I didn't recognize the name, Kawasaki. 13:26 How prevalent is the problem? 13:29 I mean, I've heard that most of the cases have been in New York. 13:33 There might be one in Los Angeles and a few other places. 13:37 ~ That's correct. 13:38 So it's not real common at this point. 13:40 ~ There's been a lot in France recently. 13:42 In the last week or so they've had quite a few cases in France. 13:46 So they're just popping up at all the hospitals 13:49 there for some reason. 13:50 They're getting a lot of them there. 13:51 And I'm not sure exactly. 13:53 Of course, there's a lot of cases in France right now, 13:55 so it may just be a factor of the numbers. 13:58 Do they know why it afflicts one child versus another child? 14:02 No, they don't know that. 14:05 We don't have the answers to a lot of things 14:07 as we deal with this. 14:10 We do know that there is a racial difference. 14:18 You know, in the United States maybe one in ten thousand, 14:22 you know... 14:26 Or is it one in ten thousand, I think, in the UK; 14:29 one in five thousand in the United States. 14:32 Among Japanese it's down to one in one thousand. 14:36 They seem to have a much higher susceptibility. 14:40 Some genetic something makes them more susceptible to this. 14:45 So there's some racial differences in who is most 14:49 susceptible to that. 14:51 But as far as the exact mechanism by which it works 14:56 or why one person is more susceptible than another, 14:58 we don't know. 15:00 It's really a fairly uncommon and rare disease. 15:02 I mean, considering how widespread the coronavirus 15:07 is now, you know. 15:09 We started with things in New York, what was it? 15:11 Over 20% of the population has already been infected. 15:15 Generally, children have very mild or asymptomatic cases 15:20 of the coronavirus. 15:22 Why a few of them develop the Kawasaki is probably 15:25 the same with the others; adenovirus. 15:27 That's the common cold virus that comes around ever year 15:30 and everybody gets the adenovirus 15:32 and almost no one gets the Kawasaki. 15:35 But there are a few children that do. 15:38 And so we don't understand exactly all of these details, 15:44 but it is out there and it is serious enough 15:48 that it's considered the number one cause of 15:51 acquired heart disease in America. 15:56 In other words, some heart diseases you're born with, 16:00 and some you cause by what you eat. 16:02 But this is caused by this particular disease process. 16:07 Strep infections, rheumatic heart disease, 16:10 is another one that can affect the heart valves. 16:12 But this Kawasaki disease making these aneurysms 16:17 in the coronary arteries, you know, is a serious thing. 16:20 And you know, if a child starts to come down with this, 16:24 we certainly want to get them treated right away to 16:27 try to prevent it from forming these aneurysms in the heart, 16:31 and these dilated vessels and stuff. 16:33 Now in a lot of cases, even though the fact that they're 16:36 starting to get the dilated vessels or maybe even starting 16:38 to get an aneurysm, in a lot of cases 16:41 those will go ahead and resolve. 16:43 They get the aspirin and the immunoglobulins, 16:46 and over the next, you know, a couple or few weeks 16:48 as they resolve, those will come back to normal 16:52 and they'll have no further problems. 16:54 But in some cases if they've gone far enough, 16:56 they don't, and it becomes a permanent 16:59 problem there in the heart. 17:00 ~ So the question is, there are a few children that have 17:05 passed away as a result of the... 17:08 Is it a combination of the Kawasaki and the coronavirus 17:12 or have they died because of the coronavirus? 17:15 Is it a compound issue? 17:16 ~ Yeah, it's all of that together. 17:19 I mean, one of the things, when we have this vasculitis 17:21 going on and everything is dilated, it sort of makes, 17:25 you'll often hear them refer to the disease 17:29 toxic shock syndrome. 17:31 It's sort of like septic shock 17:34 where certain infections make toxins and the blood vessels 17:38 dilate, and the blood pressure drops, and they're in shock. 17:42 And we're trying to put in IV fluids or even, you know, 17:46 IV pressure agents and stuff to keep the blood pressure up 17:49 to keep them alive. 17:51 And these children can go into that with that. 17:54 And it seems to be related, again, 17:56 to the vasculitis affecting that. 17:58 It's like a toxic shock syndrome. 18:01 They can go into this hemodynamic thing 18:04 where they go into this toxic shock syndrome. 18:07 And you know, it's very life threatening at that point. 18:10 And as I mentioned, in some cases these aneurysms 18:13 can clot and stuff and we can have heart attacks. 18:16 You don't think of a five year old as having a heart attack, 18:19 but yeah, if you block off an artery, 18:21 we've got a problem there. 18:25 Early recognition and treatment with aspirin and immunoglobulins 18:29 is our best course on those few children that get that. 18:32 But again, it is rare. It's a few. 18:34 Most people will have nothing. 18:35 And even of those that get it, you know, when it's recognized 18:39 and treated, they can do okay. 18:42 ~ That's the good news, that it is imminently 18:44 treatable when caught. 18:46 - Yeah. - Yeah, praise the Lord. 18:48 Well, I'm trying to think about how we're going to 18:55 frame the rest of our discussion today. 18:58 We've been wanting to talk about lifestyle issues. 19:02 And that's been for the last three or four programs. 19:05 We've never gotten to that particular issue. 19:08 But let's frame it this way. 19:11 There's a lot of talk in the media today 19:14 and among political parties about healthcare being 19:19 a human right. 19:22 On the other hand, you don't hear anything 19:25 about a person's health being a personal responsibility. 19:32 And so, you know, there's this discussion of people 19:38 who smoke, they drink, they eat lard, and they eat bacon, 19:45 and all these things that cause artery disease. 19:49 And the people who are very healthy, of course, 19:53 they have to pay for the healthcare of those people. 19:56 So shouldn't we be focusing more on prevention 20:02 and, you know, taking care of our bodies rather than cures? 20:10 You know, we always bear a responsibility. 20:12 It's interesting, though, in the legal area in the 20:16 political arena right now, not right now, but recently 20:20 in the past, we do recognize that in some cases. 20:24 Why do we have motorcycle helmet laws and bicycle helmet laws 20:29 now where you have to wear a helmet when you're out riding? 20:32 Because everybody else shouldn't have to pay for your 20:34 quadriplegia for the rest of your life 20:37 if you weren't wearing a helmet and you could have. 20:39 And so, we pass laws to protect you. 20:44 But we only go so far in certain areas, you know. 20:48 We don't arrest people for smoking 20:50 or for eating hamburgers yet. 20:54 And I don't know that we should. 20:56 I'm not talking about arresting. 20:59 You know, I'm talking about the issue of 21:01 paying for their healthcare. 21:04 Because this has to do more with long-term. 21:08 It's not like having an accident and you don't have a helmet, 21:11 and therefore for the rest of your life you're a quadriplegic. 21:14 Yeah, and when it comes down to it, 21:19 in a wealthy nation with not too much disease, 21:24 we can afford to pay for everybody's healthcare. 21:27 But as healthcare gets more expensive, 21:30 and disease gets more extensive, those soon run out of 21:36 the ability of possibilities and you start limiting healthcare. 21:44 And that's when the personal responsibility 21:48 really falls, not on everybody else, but back on you. 21:53 Because sooner or later there won't be enough CT scanners, 21:57 MRI's, and you know, all of the special imaging things. 22:02 There won't be enough lab tests for everybody, 22:04 there won't be enough, you know, drugs, 22:09 particularly some of these really expensive ones 22:11 for everybody. 22:13 And then, if your healthcare resources get overwhelmed 22:17 in a pandemic like we have seen in New York and, you know, 22:22 other places, suddenly all of the resources are used up 22:26 taking care of the immediate emergency. 22:29 And everybody else that has another medical problem 22:32 is pushed on the back burner. 22:34 They start canceling all of those things. 22:38 But you know, insurance companies start denying 22:42 certain things, and, "Well, this is no longer essential," 22:46 or, "This isn't a covered benefit anymore." 22:48 Or trying to just deal with the reality of there's not enough 22:53 money in America to pay to do everything for everybody 22:56 when everybody is sick. 22:58 And so, your health really comes back 23:02 to your own responsibility to preserve your health. 23:06 You know, God gave health to you as a right. 23:10 You have the right to good health. 23:11 God has promised it to you. 23:14 And He's promised to maintain it for you. 23:17 Not only has He given us wise advice on, you know, 23:21 you might say a prescription from the doctor for sunshine, 23:26 fresh air, drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit. 23:31 You know, He starts giving us those prescriptions; 23:33 now we can follow them or not follow them. 23:35 But you know, health comes from following them. 23:39 And even beyond the prescriptions of healthcare, 23:45 He's told us that, you know, "I am the Lord, your Healer." 23:49 That's His title. He's our Healer. 23:52 Salvation and physical healing are so intertwined 23:59 when we talk about Christ's work to redeem and undo 24:03 all the evil that Satan has done in this world. 24:06 And when He came here 2000 years ago, 24:09 He spent as much time going around miraculously 24:13 healing people because that was His mission. 24:18 Not just to get people interested 24:20 so they would listen to Him. 24:21 It really was His mission to restore health. 24:26 ~ Physical, mental, and spiritual. 24:28 Yeah, that was really definitely part of His mission. 24:34 I understand that the New Testament uses the same word 24:39 for, "salvation," and, "healing". 24:41 And while I'm not proficient in those languages, 24:44 I have been told that item. 24:46 And I think there is a lot of insight to be gained 24:50 in understanding the closeness of those two. 24:53 How closely healing, physical healing, is connected 24:58 with spiritual healing. 24:59 Those two go together in so many ways, you know. 25:02 We can talk for weeks about the connection between those. 25:07 You know, but we understand the health principles. 25:10 They form a huge big part of our part in cooperating with God. 25:15 Much in the same way that He gave His Ten Commandments. 25:19 And as we cooperate with those, it's how we cooperate 25:23 in our spiritual healing. 25:25 You know, the Spirit comes to do both of these in us. 25:30 The Spirit heals our body and the Spirit heals our soul, 25:35 but He does it through our cooperation, 25:39 our submission, our surrender, our absolutely giving into 25:44 God's way, recognizing Him as the Ruler in our lives. 25:49 And as we do that, we place Him in a position 25:52 where He's free to go ahead and do miracles that go even beyond 25:57 fruits and vegetables. 26:01 You know, I like the story of Naaman. 26:06 You know, the Syrian captain that came down 26:09 to Elisha with this incurable disease. 26:15 There was no physician at the time that had anything 26:17 to offer, any hope to offer him. 26:20 And we have diseases today in which there are physicians 26:24 that have no hope to offer us. 26:25 But he came with this, and he went to him 26:30 and had heard that he could do miraculous healings, 26:33 because of the witness of this little girl. 26:35 And when he got there, Elisha didn't even 26:39 come down and talk to him. 26:42 He basically sent his servant down. 26:48 Just his messenger. 26:50 ~ Didn't make Naaman too happy, did it? 26:52 No. And he said, "Just go wash in the Jordan river 26:56 seven times and you'll be healed." 26:59 You know, and then he was really mad, you know. 27:01 He said, "I got really taken on this one. 27:05 The guy wouldn't even come talk to me." 27:07 Oh, and he was mad. 27:09 - And I remember that, you know, compared to the rivers 27:12 he had at home which he said were much cleaner, 27:15 he said, "Yeah, he sends me to this mud hole." 27:17 But finally his friends say, "Well, just try it." 27:20 So he went out to the river, he dipped seven times, 27:23 and on the seventh time he was miraculously healed. 27:27 Now was it the water in the Jordan river that healed him? 27:32 No, of course not. You know. 27:35 It was God's miraculous healing power. 27:39 But if he hadn't gone and dipped in the river seven times, 27:43 would God have been free to heal him? 27:45 No, if he had gone back and said, "I'm going to 27:46 dip in this other river," no. 27:49 No, God, He comes to all of us with that option. 27:54 Well, time is up. 27:58 Dip in the river. 28:01 We'll see you again next time on Coronavirus Report. 28:04 Stay healthy, stay well. |
Revised 2020-06-24