The sudden infant death syndrome.

Recent research has defined a group of infants with certain characteristics who may be prone to sudden unexpected death, but no single criterion has yet been found that can be used to identify the victim before or after death. Although the aetiology of SIDS remains a mystery, it seems likely that certain stresses such as infection, overheating, and environmental or nutritional deprivation in a vulnerable group of infants may combine at a critical period of development to cause death by respiratory arrest. Some of these deaths may be prevented by raising the general standard of care for the whole infant population, improving health education, and increasing the surveillance of high risk groups. There remains a hard core of infants for whom the stresses appear minimal and the environment optimal but in the present state of our knowledge their death seems unavoidable.