"Measles Vaccine in Bangladesh Produces More Than Anticipated Mortality Decline"
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"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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