This baby had the vaccines at 1:00 and by 4: 00 the baby is dead, yet
' SIDS' is the cause of death.
Vaccinations Manufacturer Lot Dose Route Site
1 DTAP NORTH AMERICAN V 1004R 1 IM RL
2 HIBV LEDERLE(PRAXIS) 512453A 1 IM RL
3 IPV MERIEUX INST P0474 1 IM LL
Onset Date: 2000-04-06 Number of Days: 0
Symptoms: APNEA BRONCHIOLITIS BRONCHITIS CHILLS EDEMA LUNG HEART ARREST
HYPOTONIA LUNG DIS RHINITIS SIDS
Child presented to ER, lifeless and not breathing. Baby cool with rigor
mortis. Mom had fed infant at 13:30 and he was fine. At 17:00, noted to
be pale and lifeless. CPR began and brought to ER. Autopsy shows
pulmonary vascular congestion, pulmonary edema, tracheobronchitis with
bronchiolotis and peri-bronchiolar pulmonary inflammation, generalized
visceral congestion, sudden infant death
Maternal and Obstetric Risk Factors for Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome in the United States
Darios Getahun, MD, MPH*, Devendra Amre, MD, PhD, George G. Rhoads, MD, MPH
and Kitaw Demissie, MD, PhD
From the *Department of Family Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry
(UMDNJ)-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, New Jersey;
Department of Pediatrics, Research Center, Sainte-Justine Hospital, Montreal,
Quebec, Canada; Division of Epidemiology, UMDNJ–School of Public Health,
Piscataway, New Jersey; and Department of Environmental and Community
Medicine, UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey.
Address reprint requests to: Darios Getahun, MD, MPH, Department of Family
Medicine, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, One Robert Wood Johnson
Place-CN 19, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019; e-mail: getahuda@umdnj.edu.
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of this study were to 1) study the incidence of
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) among singleton births in the United
States and 2) identify maternal and obstetric risk factors for SIDS.
METHODS: A cohort of all live births in the United States from 1995 to 1998,
formed the source population (n = 15,627,404). The data were obtained from
the National Centers for Health Statistics Linked Births and Infant Deaths
File. A nested case-control study was used to examine risk factors for SIDS.
From this birth cohort, all SIDS deaths (n = 12,404) were first identified
(case group). From the remaining non-SIDS births, a 4-fold larger sample (n =
49,616) was randomly selected as a control group.
RESULTS: The overall incidence of SIDS was 81.7 per 100,000 live births.
More mothers in the case group than in the control group were reported to
have placenta previa (odds ratio [OR]: 1.70; 95% confidence interval [CI]
1.24, 2.33), abruptio placentae (OR 1.57; 95% CI 1.24, 1.98), premature
rupture of membranes (OR 1.48; 95% CI 1.33, 1.66), or small for gestational
age (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.30, 1.50 for the 10th percentile). SIDS cases were
also more likely to be male. Mothers of cases were more likely to be younger,
less educated, and nonwhite, and more of them smoked during pregnancy and did
not attend prenatal care.
CONCLUSION: This analysis confirms the importance of several well known
demographic and lifestyle risk factors for SIDS. In addition, placental
abnormalities were risk factors for SIDS.
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=12892
http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=7534908
Heartbroken woman wonders if vaccines killed her infant son
By JoNel Aleccia
Staff writer
December 23, 2007
Federal health officials are reviewing whether routine immunizations contributed
to the deaths of as many as three North Idaho babies this fall, a spokesman for
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week. The agency has
requested autopsy reports and medical records for at least two children
and could seek them for a third Kootenai County infant, all of whom died in
September and October, apparently within days of receiving recommended vaccines.
There's no clear link between the vaccines and the deaths, which were classified
as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the
CDC. "There is nothing so far to indicate that there is a particular problem
other than these children died in the same city," Allen said.
But the mother of one of the children said it's no coincidence that her
4-month-old son died within days of receiving injections to prevent serious
childhood illnesses, including diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B,
polio, rotavirus and invasive pneumococcal disease. "My baby was so healthy,"
said Shelly Walker, 39, of Hayden. "He was extremely full of life, energy and
vitality." Nevertheless, early on the morning of Sept. 15, less than three days
after Vance Vernon Walker received a round of vaccines at Lakeside Pediatric and
Adolescent Medicine in Coeur d'Alene, his mother awoke to a nightmare.
"It was about 5:15 a.m. I woke up and thought, 'He's not making any noise!' "
Walker recalled. "I went to pick him up and then I screamed."Her 16 1/2-pound
boy was warm and his lips were still pink, but he wasn't moving. Blood was
crusted beneath his eyes, and his clothes and toys were covered with a bloody
froth.
As her husband, Brian, 46, called 911, Walker worked frantically to resuscitate
their child. But in the emergency room at Kootenai Medical Center, doctors said
Vance had been dead for several hours. "I grabbed my baby in my arms and held
him up and I screamed, 'How in the hell did this happen?' " Walker said. "Was it
the vaccines?" Medical officials from the CDC and the federal Food and Drug
Administration are working to answer that question for the Walkers and for
families of two other babies who died within six weeks of each other.
Two of the deaths have been logged in the voluntary Vaccine Adverse Event
Reporting System --VAERS -- jointly operated by the CDC and FDA, agency
officials said. But Dr. Robert West, the Kootenai County coroner, confirmed that
three infants died this fall within days of immunization.Parents of the other
babies could not be reached for comment. Autopsies failed to detect any specific
vaccine reactions, West said, forcing a determination of SIDS -- a "diagnosis of
exclusion," he noted. He said he welcomes the federal review. "It is a little
bit unusual but not totally unheard of," West said. "It deserves the
investigative clout of the CDC."
Walker confirmed that her son's death was one of the Idaho cases reported to
VAERS. The other reported child likely was also under the care of the Coeur
d'Alene pediatric group, Allen said. That raises the possibility the children
received vaccines from the same batch. If the CDC receives three reports of
deaths or 10 reports of serious non-fatal injuries related to the same lot of a
vaccine, it launches a review, Allen said.
In Vance Walker's case, the immunizations included a dose of Pediarix, a
combined vaccine that contains DTaP, hepatitis B and inactivated polio vaccines.
His mother's records indicate the lot number of the vaccine manufactured by
GlaxoSmithKline was AC21B124B.He also received a dose of Prevnar, lot number
B54007C, a vaccine manufactured by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Allen, of the CDC, said it would be up to the medical practice to decide whether
to suspend use of the vaccine. Dr. Brian Hickok, the pediatrician for Walker's
son, did not return calls about the issue. A representative for the medical
practice declined to comment. Those two vaccines are the most likely to be
implicated in any adverse events, said David Terzian, a Virginia lawyer who
specializes in vaccine injury cases. Terzian said the Walkers have a good chance
of receiving compensation for their son's death through a federal program
because it occurred so soon after immunization, well within the 72 hours
required
by federal rules.
Information provided by drug manufacturers and attached to the vaccines reports
low numbers of associated deaths. In 14 clinical trials of Pediarix, five deaths
were reported among 8,088 recipients of the vaccine, including two cases of
SIDS. In a study of more than 34,000 children in which about half received
Prevnar and half received a control vaccine, a dozen deaths, including five SIDS
deaths, occurred in the Prevnar group. By contrast, 21 deaths
occurred in the control group, including four SIDS deaths, according to
manufacturer data.
Immunization specialists acknowledge that any death following vaccination is a
tragedy. But they emphasize that far more children died or fell ill in the era
before vaccinations. "For the most part, disease is always going to be more
risky than getting a vaccine," said Nicole Pender, health educator for the
immunization program at the Washington state Department of Health. That is no
comfort to Shelly Walker. She hopes her experience inspires parents to educate
themselves about the risks of vaccines and prompts them to monitor any reaction,
however slight. She plans to file a claim through the National Vaccine Injury
Compensation Program, which provides a maximum of $250,000 after a
vaccine-related death. In return, all records related to her son's injury and
death will be sealed by the drug manufacturers. Walker is optimistic that
they'll use the data to improve product safety so other families won't
experience her tragedy.
"My hope is they're compiling data and statistics to make things better," she
said. "I'm trying to believe in the inherent goodness of something here."
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