Pediatricians from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London found potentially dangerous bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli in nearly half of all babies who died of SIDS at a London hospital.
The team reviewed autopsies of 507 infants who had died of SIDS between 1996 and 2005. They found dangerous bacteria in 181 babies, or nearly half of the 365 whose deaths were unexplained. Some 72 infant deaths were attributed to non-infective causes, such as congenital heart disease or an accident.
Writing in the May 30 issue of The Lancet, the team said presence of these germs in the samples is not proof in itself that they caused the babies' deaths but they could be linked at least to some SIDS cases that are unexplainable. Bacterial infections have long been suspected to play a role in SIDS.
In the United States, SIDS kills more than 2,000 infants every year. It is also the third leading cause of death in babies before they reach their first birthday.
Interventions designed to reduce known risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome include giving pacifiers to babies to help them keep breathing, putting babies to sleep on their backs, convincing moms to stop smoking and avoiding putting too many blankets on the child.
