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A commentary on the review by Goldwater
If scientific research of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is to be judged on how well it now understands this syndrome after four decades of intensive research it has been a spectacular failure. If however, it is to be judged on the number of young lives saved, it has ultimately been a resounding success. Dr Goldwater’s critical insight in this issue1 into our lack of knowledge regarding the aetiology of SIDS and our slow uptake on fully using pathological clues to examine potential causal mechanisms are fully justified, but his observation that much research, effort, time, and money has been wasted is not.
To argue that the present rate of SIDS is returning back to similar levels observed in the 1970s and may be due to natural variation rather than the “back to sleep” campaign may seem feasible when looking …