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26 July 2022
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #19762 email]
Tēnā koe Chris,
Your Official Information Act request, reference H202208412:
Thank you for your email of 28 June 2022 requesting information relating to Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome (SIDS).
As part of the transformation of the health and disability system reforms, as of 1 July 2022 the functions
previously under the Ministry of Health's Child and Community Health team have now transferred to Te
Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora). As the matters you have raised now fal under the
functions of Te Whatu Ora, our agency wil respond to your request which has been considered under the
Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
I shal quote and respond to each part of your request below.
Are you able to provide from 1990 - 2022 the following:
- Total number of deaths registered as being from SIDS
- I am assuming that given there are recommendations for babies to be vaccinated with certain
shots then all of the infants who died from SIDS would have had a shot or two - Yes or No
This information is publicly available at the following link:
www.minhealthnz.shinyapps.io/fetal-and-infant-
deaths-web-tool/. Please note currently the confirmed numbers of registered deaths from SIDS are
provided up to 2018. Therefore, your request for data between 2019 and 2022 is refused under section
18(g)(i) of the Act. Vaccination is not one of the variables that we collect data for sudden unexpected death
in infancy (SUDI)/SIDS. Please refer to the above link for available variables.
- Is there any baseline data available to compare SIDS for babies that have had no vaccinations
versus babies who received the recommended shots - if not what would be required to source this
information - begin recording this data in New Zealand
SUDI/SIDS and immunisation both occur in close temporal association, so it is common to believe there
may be a link between the two events. This question has been addressed by several research projects
published over the last 25 years, two of which are referenced below.
The international evidence as well as substantial research in New Zealand has conclusively and repeatedly
found that maternal smoking in pregnancy, infant in prone sleeping position, and bed-sharing are the main
risk factors for SUDI/SIDS. The association between immunisation and SIDS/SUDI has been investigated
thoroughly and there is either no causal relationship, or potential y a protective effect of immunisation on
SUDI/SIDS. New Zealand research carried out by internationally renowned New Zealand paediatrician
Professor Ed Mitchell in 1995 confirmed this in a large sample of New Zealand infants.
1 The same findings
were found in the United Kingdom and reported in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 2001 by Dr Peter
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link to page 2
Fleming.
2 Dr Fleming also found that immunisation did not increase the risk of SUDI/SIDS in the infants
studied and that the trend of the association was clearly towards protection.
Current data from New Zealand also does not support a correlation between immunisation and SUDI/SIDS.
Rates of SUDI/SIDS are higher among pēpi Māori, who have a lower immunisation rate in the first year of
life compared with European babies who have higher rates of immunisation and a SUDI/SIDS rate almost
8.5 times lower than pēpi Māori.
Te Whatu Ora is confident in the international studies contacted and does not believe it is appropriate to
undertake further research into this issue.
Please provide from 1990 - 2022 the following
- Total number of deaths registered as being from SADS
- From 2021 - 2022 can you confirm if the person who died from SADS received the clot shot / mRNA
jab
- The Medsafe reports state there are 160 deaths plus another 2,982 people who died within 21
days of their 1st, 2nd or 3rd clot shot. Are you able to tel me how many of these 3,142 deaths were
registered as SADS if any
- With the country having a high vaccination rate is there any baseline data and / or control groups
that are being monitored or could be set-up to measure SADS in the vaccinated versus unvaccinated
- if this is not being done or unable to be done then doctors wil continue to be "baffled by this
sudden phenomenon" that has recently surfaced]”
The term Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) is sometimes used interchangeably with Sudden
Arrhythmic Death Syndrome. Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome deaths wil tend to be coded to cardiac
arrythmia, alongside other cardiac arrythmia deaths. Te Whatu Ora is able to provide the number of deaths
due to
Cardiac arrhythmia, unspecified (ICD 10-AM version 11 code I49.9) however this is not quite the
same thing as SADS.
Sudden unexplained deaths might have an R96.0 code
Instantaneous death recorded, either as underlying
cause or contributing cause. This code can also be used for Sudden Unexplained Death of Someone with
Epilepsy (SUDEP). Neither of these codes are specifically related to SADS as they include deaths due to
other causes.
A third code may be deaths where we do not have a cause, R99 O
ther ill-defined and unspecified causes of
mortality though again, this includes a variety of unrelated scenarios.
As SADS is not necessarily a defined category of its own, this part of your request is refused under section
18(g) of the Act. If you are interested information relating to these codes, you may wish to make another
request for information. Please note you are welcome to request this data directly from data-
[email address].
You are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning
0800 802 602.
2 www.bmj.com/content/322/7290/822.ful
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may decide to proactively
release a copy of this response on Te Whatu Ora’s website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Deborah Woodley
Interim Director
Population Health Commissioning
