Children's Uncommon Diseases: Reye's Syndrome

Reye's Syndrome is a rare and dangerous disease that usually affects children, and often after they have taken aspirin to treat an illenss. For this reason, doctors now suggest that children under twelve years old should not be given aspirin. Reye's syndrome is a disorder that affects the liver and the brain and that can cause death. Cases of Reye’s syndrome in adults are rare. The syndrome is named after Dr. R. Douglas Reye, who published the first study of the syndrome in 1963 in the medical journal The Lancet.

* Tylenol

In 1955, Robert McNeil introduced Tylenol for children. This was important because it was assumed that aspirin caused Reye's syndrome. Later, more Tylenol products were developed such as Tylenol PM, Infant's Tylenol, and Tylenol Allergy Sinus. In 1959, McNeil Laboratories was placed at the top of the pharmaceutical industry. The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen, used for headaches, fever, muscle and body pain, arthritis, and joint pain. Tylenol was popular back then and still is today.