Sudden Infant Death After Vaccination

Abstract

Sudden infant deaths might be attributable to adverse reaction to vaccination, but separating them from coincidental occurrences is difficult. This study retrospectively investigated vaccination-related details and postmortem findings for 57 cases of sudden death in children 2 years or younger. Data were extracted from autopsy files at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine. Vaccination histories were available in 50 cases based on the maternity passbook. Of the 32 cases in which any vaccines were administered, 7 infants (21.9%) had received immunization within 7 days of death. The most frequent vaccine cited as the last immunization before death was Haemophilus influenzae B. Although a temporal association of vaccines with sudden death was present for two 3-month-old and one 14-month-old infants in whom death occurred within 3 days of receiving the H. influenzae type b and other vaccinations, a definitive relationship between the vaccine and death could not be identified. Histopathological examinations revealed pneumonia and upper respiratory infection as contributing to death in their cases. Moreover, all 3 cases showed hemophagocytosis in the spleen and lymph nodes, which are similar features to hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. Judgment of the disorders as truly related to vaccination is difficult, but suspicious cases do exist. Forensic pathologists must devote more attention to vaccination in sudden infant death cases.

Sudden Infant Death Due to Postvaccinal Myocarditis: A Case Report

“…Vaccinations are usually well tolerated. In some previous studies, sudden death following vaccination has been considered [7,8,[15][16][17]; however, myocarditis following vaccination has been reported as a rare AEFI and cause of death [18][19][20]. Majorly, myocarditis has been reported as a rare adverse effect following DTwP and polio vaccination [18][19][20].…”

“…It can be defined as an unexpected death in an individual without any known disease, injury, or disorder within 24 hours after the onset of an illness [5]. Sudden Infant Death (SID) was reported as a serious AEFI [6,7]. Additionally, the probable association between vaccination and SIDs has been noted.…”

Circumstances and factors of sleep-related sudden infancy deaths in Japan

“…We previously analyzed forensic autopsy cases of sudden infant deaths after vaccination using this passbook. [16] While the childcare environment differs according to region and time, there are few epidemiological data describing infant deaths during sleep in Japan. [17] Takatsu et al [18] exhibited the trends of SUID cases from 1982 to 2006.…”