The Authors Respond.

© 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. www.epidem.com | e57 The Authors Respond: We thank Abrams et al. for their interest in our study. the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease is still an open question incidence of Kawasaki disease in Japan since 1987 does not match the decreasing incidence of pertussis during the same time frame.5–7 searching for clues on the etiology of Kawasaki disease is an important endeavor that may ultimately lead to improved disease prevention and treatment, and therefore hypothesisgenerating studies are potentially very useful. Unfortunately, further examination of the relation between pertussis and Kawasaki disease reveals that an observed correlation between the diseases is unlikely to reflect a true causal association.