By Maree Curtis of the Sunday Age

BABIES who are not immunised run a higher risk of dying from cot death, according to international research. In separate studies, Dr Caroline Blackwell, a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University Medical School, Scotland, and Dr Carl Lindgren, from the department of paediatrics, Oslo University, Norway, found immunisation provided increased protection against sudden infant death syndrome. Dr Blackwell and Dr Lindgren are keynote speakers at the Australian SIDS conference in Melbourne this weekend.

Dr Lindgren said immunisation against pertussis (whooping cough) was halted in Sweden in 1979 because of concerns about side effects while Norway continued to immunise against it. By studying babies from both countries, where social conditions are almost identical, Dr Lindgren found a statistically significant correlation between the decreased incidence of immunisation and an increase in SIDS. There have been a lot of studies because people have been afraid that immunisation as such may be the cause of SIDS but an immunised population seems to have less degree of SIDS, Dr Lindgren said.

Dr Blackwell said there was increasing evidence that many SIDS infants had been exposed to bacterial toxins. She said that while about 50 per cent of healthy babies will have Staphyloccoccus aureus organisms in their nose and throat, up to 86 per cent of SIDS babies in her study had the organisms. She said the organisms produced toxins when they were heated to between 37 degrees and 40 degrees. In healthy babies the nose and throat were usually cooler due to airway circulation. The key thing, we think, is heat. It’s the heat that switches on the toxins, so keeping babies cool and sleeping them on their backs (to aid circulation) is important, Dr Blackwell said.

She said Britain had recently followed Australia’s lead and decreased the age of first immunisation to two months. While the overall incidence of SIDS had decreased, the number of deaths in babies under two months increased. Dr Blackwell said the value of early immunisation could be that it encourages antibody production during the vulnerable “window period” when the protection the baby recieves from its mother’s antibodies is decreasing.

The federal Health Minister, Dr Michael Wooldridge, a strong supporter of immunisation, said the research was very encouraging. He said Australia’s immunisation rate was one of the worst in the Western world with only 53 per cent of children receiving complete immunisation by school entry. I am hoping to get that well into the 70s at worst, and into the 80s at best, within 18 months,” Dr Wooldridge said. He said the Government was planning a major launch in July to promote immunisation and that as of 1 January next year, parents who did not have their children immunised would not be eligible for child care benefits unless they signed a conscientious objection. The president of the Australian College of Paediatrics, Professor Peter Phelan, said the latest research would be very reassuring for parents.

Note by Len Horowitz: This information appears to contradict the findings of Harris Coulter and others whose research indicates SIDS is very often linked to RECEIVING early vaccinations.

Meryl Dorey,
President
The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.
PO Box 177 (066) 871-699 Phone
Bangalow NSW 2479 (066) 872-032 FAX
van@mypostbox.com
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~shotinfo
” All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident.”
(Schopenhauer)

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