INFANT is currently conducting 2 studies that aim to determine the causes of infant mortality both at community and hospital levels. Our team determined for the first time that respiratory syncytial virus (the bronchiolitis virus) is present in the nasal swabs of babies who died at home, many of them diagnosed with sudden death.

To determine the cause of death, we use various approaches based on postmortem biopsies or minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS), interviews with families (verbal autopsies), laboratory techniques (molecular biology), and coding of causes by methods used by the WHO and the CHAMPS network.

The preliminary results of the infant mortality team in the Buenos Aires suburbs are key for decision-making in relation to various vaccines in development, the most important being the respiratory syncytial virus.

The team is currently conducting a study to determine the molecular mechanisms of mortality from COVID 19 based on transcriptomics and epidemiology.

The INFANT Foundation team is part of global discussion and decision-making groups on infant mortality, participating in meetings at the WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, government agencies and the MITS Surveillance Alliance.