A Link Between Staphylococcus Infection And SIDS
September 12, 2017
A new study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood
suggests that Staphylococcus aureus and other
bacterial
infections may have been
overlooked as possible causes of sudden infant death
syndrome (SIDS).
In 2006, a paper Morris et al. found that a pure growth of a
pathogen in blood or CSF was a potential contributing factor to death
for people at all ages. Subsequently, researchers published a
retrospective study that provided causal evidence for the role of Staphylococcus
aureus and Escherichia coli in sudden
unexpected death in infancy (SUDI).
Paul Goldwater (The Women's and Children's Hospital and The University
of Adelaide, Australia) continued studying the relationship by
analyzing post mortem reports three groups of babies:
130 babies who had died of sudden
infant death syndrome (SIDS)
32 who had died suddenly as a result of
infection (SUDI)
33 who had died of non-infectious cause, such as
a car accident
The researcher looked at bacterial isolates
from the typically-sterile heart blood, spleen, or
cerebrospinal fluid in the SIDS babies and compared observations with
samples from the other 65 babies. Goldwater noted that it was rare to
find infection at a sterile site in babies who had died of
non-infectious causes, and it was common to find infection in the SUDI
and SIDS babies. About 20% of SUDI and 10% of SIDS babies at infections
at sterile sites.
Studies of the infections revealed that they were caused by the
particularly virulent bacteria Staphylococcus aureus
- one that is known to produce potentially lethal toxins. Though
confirmation of infection at a sterile site in a living person
indicates systemic infection, the author maintains that findings in
SIDS babies have been considered some form of contamination and usually
are dismissed as a cause of death. The relatively high proportion of
infants that present S aureus in sterile sites,
however, suggests that several of the babies would have perished due to
their staphylococcal bacterial infection.
It is highly probably, according to other researchers, that immune
responses to bacterial infection
and/or toxins create a "chemical storm", which can overwhelm a baby and
lead to sudden death. The author suggests that cases of SIDS where
autopsy reports have found S aureus in sterile
sites should perhaps be reconsidered for reclassification.
Sterile site infection at autopsy in sudden unexpected deaths
in infancy
P N Goldwater
Archives of Disease in Childhood (2008).
doi:10.1136/adc.2007,135939
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Here to View Journal Web Site
: Peter M Crosta