Of the 500 cases of unexpected infant death reported each year, 75% have no known scientific cause. The National Observatory will try to answer it.
With 400 to 500 cases per year in France, unexpected infant death (Min) is the leading cause of death between one month and one year. Yet between 100 and 150 deaths could be avoided if parents knew and adopted certain preventive measures, underlines the association Naître et Vivre which organizes, with the Reference Centers for Unexpected Infant Death, a national prevention week from 19 to September 23.
“In about fifteen CHUs, our volunteers will hold stands in hospitals to explain to parents in a fun way the interest of laying children on their backs so that they have their noses and mouths in the open air, explains to Why actor Myriam Morinay. The vice-president of the association Naître et Vivre has been fighting for nearly 20 years for a national campaign to be led by the public authorities. Above all, she tries to erase from the minds a recommendation with disastrous consequences.
In the early 1990s, sleeping on the stomach was recommended to parents. Very quickly, an increase in infant deaths was observed all over the world. In France, a major prevention campaign was then carried out in 1994 to make parents aware of this danger and recommend that children be placed on their backs. “A clear decrease in deaths is then observed,” says Dr. Karine Levieux of the referral center of the Nantes University Hospital (Loire-Atlantique). We have gone from 1,200-1,300 deaths per year to 400-500 deaths in France. But since the 2000s this figure has stagnated ”.
Karine Levieux, pediatrician at the Referral Center for Unexpected Infant Death at the Nantes University Hospital: ” There are risk factors favoring death such as lying prone, passive smoking or an overheated bedroom … “
For the specialist, this inability to reduce the number of deaths has two possible explanations: either prevention still fishes, or scientific knowledge is still limited. “Unfortunately, it is not because parents have laid their baby on his back, in his sleeping bag, in a room heated between 18 and 20 ° C and without being exposed to tobacco that a death cannot occur, underlines the pediatrician. The child may suffer from an infection, a cardiac or cerebral defect, a metabolic disorder, trauma or another still unknown cause … It is for this reason that today we say that death unexpected development of the infant is multifactorial ”.
Advance knowledge
And it is to advance research that the National Association of Referral Centers for Unexpected Infant Death (ANCReMIN), supported by associations such as Naître et Vivre, created the National Observatory for Unexpected Infant Death in May. 2015. “The first in the world”, slips Dr Levieux who coordinates it. Its objective is simple: to centralize all the information concerning these children and the circumstances of their death in order to advance research.
Thus, all unexpected infant deaths are recorded on a secure platform. Gender, age, risk factors for death and the results of examinations are noted. A biocollection will be associated with it from January 1, 2017 in order to group together samples and store DNA for future scientific research work. “But it will take at least two years before we collect enough samples to analyze,” notes Dr. Levieux.
By then, specialists hope to be able to improve prevention messages, and convince the public authorities to launch a major national campaign – the last date of 1994.
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