Sids and Kids - Red Nose Day

SIDS and Kids To Investigate Other Infant Deaths

Red Nose Day is Friday June 24 June 2005.

If there were 2,000 infants killed in a bus crash each year, there would be a major campaign to investigate.....

SIDS and Kids, the organisation responsible for Australia's most successful infant health campaign, which so far, has saved the lives of more than 4,000 babies, is now funding research into the causes of other infant deaths.

The overwhelming success of the SIDS and Kids Safe Sleeping campaign, introduced in the early 1990s, has directly contributed to a massive reduction of 84% in the rate of SIDS.

In 1989 500 babies died of SIDS in Australia. Since the introduction of SIDS and Kids Safe Sleeping health promotion, this rate has been reduced to less than 100 deaths per year.

Recommendations in the SIDS and Kids Safe Sleeping brochures include sleeping baby on their back, ensuring baby's head remains uncovered during sleep and keeping baby in a smoke free environment.

Now the organisation is supporting research into other areas of infant mortality.

Ms Jan Carey, National Executive, Research and Programs, SIDS and Kids said: "Our family bereavement support program is already established in this area, so it makes sense for us to advocate for and fund research into the causes of stillbirth and other unexplained infant deaths."

"We are currently providing funding to a research project to develop new techniques to find viruses, and to determine what types of viruses cause stillbirth, preterm births and abnormalities", she said. Professor William Rawlinson, Senior Medical Viroligist at the Prince of Wales Hospital and chief investigator for the project said: "There are about 3 babies stillborn every day in Australia. There are at least 2 babies born every day in Australia with congenital viral infection, that cause problems such as deafness, mental disability, lung and heart disease."

"Of the 250,000 babies born each year in Australia, over 2,000 are either stillborn or die in the first month of their lives," Professor Rawlinson said.

"We still do not know the cause of most stillbirths," he said.

"The parents of these infants who die need answers too," Professor Rawlinson said.

"One minute a mother can feel her child kicking and the next minute the baby can be dead.

"If there were 2,000 infants killed in a bus crash each year, there would be a major campaign to investigate," Professor Rawlinson said.

Red Nose Day is Friday June 24 June 2005.