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April 23, 2003
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Measles Vaccine in Bangladesh Produces More Than Anticipated Mortality Decline"
Reuters Health Information Services (www.reutershealth.com) (04/21/03); Vidyashankar, C.
Researchers studying measles vaccinations in Bangladesh say that the process of vaccinating children against the illness has resulted in a reduction of child mortality greater than can be explained simply through the process of measles prevention. According to Dr. Peter Aaby of the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Denmark, and colleagues, surveillance data from 1982 to 1985 in Matlab, Bangladesh, shows that mortality among children in the vaccinated population was 49 percent below the mortality rate in areas that had not received measles vaccinations--and after taking into account measles-related deaths, the mortality rate was still 43 percent lower. Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the findings show that the difference in risk of mortality was most striking during the first six months after vaccination, when mortality was 74 percent lower than in unvaccinated regions, with benefits extending as long as two years. After 1986, when all Bangladesh regions received measles vaccinations, there was no significant difference among various populations in terms of mortality.
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