Differences in female-male mortality after high-titre measles vaccine and association with subsequent vaccination with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and inactivated poliovirus: reanalysis of West African studies
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Differences in female-male mortality after high-titre measles vaccine and
association with subsequent vaccination with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and
inactivated poliovirus: reanalysis of West African studies
Differences in female-male
mortality after high-titre measles vaccine and association with
subsequent vaccination with diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and
inactivated poliovirus: reanalysis of West African studies
Peter Aaby, Henrik Jensen,
Badara Samb, Badara Cisse, Morten Sodemann, Marianne Jakobsen, Anja
Poulsen, Amabelia Rodrigues, Ida Maria Lisse, Francois Simondon, Hilton
Whittle
Projecto de Saúde de
Bandim, Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Apartado 861, Bissau,
Guinea-Bissau (Prof P Aaby MSc, H Jensen PhD, M Sodemann MD, M
Jakobsen MD, A Poulsen MD, A Rodrigues PhD, I M Lisse MD); UR 24
Epidemiology and Prevention Research Unit, IRD, Dakar, Senegal (Prof P
Aaby, B Samb MD, B Cisse MD, F Simondon MD); and MRC Laboratories,
Banjul, Gambia (Prof H Whittle BSc)
Correspondence to:
Prof Peter Aaby, Danish Epidemiology Science Centre, Statens Serum
Institut, Artillerivej 5, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark (e-mail:psb@mail.gtelecom.gw)
Background Females given
high-titre measles vaccine (HTMV) have high mortality;
diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccination might be associated with
increased female mortality. We aimed to assess whether DTP or inactivated
poliovirus (IPV) administered after HTMV was associated with increased
female-male mortality ratio.
Methods In three trials
from West Africa, 2000 children were randomised to HTMV or control vaccine
at 4-5 months of age; a second vaccination was given at age 9-10 months
(standard measles vaccine). Children in high-titre groups were given IPV
or DTP-IPV. Another 944 children received HTMV as routine vaccination in
Senegal.
Findings When we
compared high-titre and control groups, no difference in mortality between
the first and the second vaccination was noted. After the second
vaccination, the female-male mortality ratio was 1·84 (95% CI 1·19-2·84)
in children in the high-titre groups who received DTP-IPV or IPV, and 0·59
(0·34-1·04) in controls who received standard measles vaccine (p=0·007).
Children who received HTMV but no additional DTP-IPV or IPV had a
female-male mortality ratio of 0·83 (0·41-1·67). This ratio was 2·22
(1·04-4·71) for children who received DTP-IPV after routine HTMV and 1·00
(0·68-1·47) for those who did not. When we combined the results from all
trials, the female-male mortality ratio was 1·93 (1·33-2·81) for those who
received DTP or IPV after HTMV, and 0·96 (0·69-1·34) for those who did not
(p=0·006).
Interpretation A change
in sequence of vaccinations, rather than HTMV itself, may have been the
cause of increased female mortality in these trials.
In 1989, WHO recommended use of
high-titre Edmonston-Zagreb (EZ-HT) measles vaccine at age 6 months for
children living in countries in which the incidence of measles before age
9 months was high.1 In 1992, after results of studies in
Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Haiti had shown raised female mortality in
recipients of high-titre measles vaccine (HTMV),2-4
recommendation for this vaccine was rescinded.5 Since
high-titre vaccines protect against measles infection, the results of the
high-titre trials had shown that vaccines might reduce survival in
geographical areas with high mortality from this infection.
In areas of high mortality,
various vaccines might have non-specific effects on mortality; for
example, measles6-9 and BCG9-11 vaccines reduce
mortality from diseases other than measles and tuberculosis. On the other
hand, inactivated vaccines such as diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) and
inactivated poliovirus (IPV) might amplify mortality from diseases other
than diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio.7,9,11,12
Non-specific effects are strongest in the first 3-6 months after
immunisation13 and in girls,2,3,6,12,14 and they are
largely determined by the most recent vaccine received; for example, in
Guinea-Bissau, the female-male mortality ratio was 3·08 (95% CI 1·11-8·56)
for children who received DTP as their last vaccine, but only 0·63
(0·28-1·40) for those who received measles vaccine last.12
Results of several studies from West Africa have shown that BCG could
enhance the response to unrelated antigens.10,15
The greatly reduced mortality
after measles vaccination has been attributed to prevention of long-term
effects of measles infection. However, although morbidity might be raised
for a few months after measles infection,16 results of studies
from Burundi,17 Ghana,18 Bangladesh,13,16
and Senegal19 have shown no increase in mortality after the
acute phase of infection. Mild measles infection might be associated with
lower mortality,13,19 thus both measles infection and measles
vaccination might provide beneficial stimulation of the immune system,
which enhances resistance to other infections.
HTMVs seem to result in a high
female-male mortality ratio6 and an increased mortality when
compared with female recipients of standard-titre measles vaccine.20
In a meta-analysis of West African studies, girls who received HTMV had a
mortality ratio of 1·86 (95% CI 1·28-2·70) compared with those who
received standard measles vaccine, whereas boys had a mortality ratio of
only 0·91 (0·61-1·35). The effect was not seen immediately, but several
months later. Two different hypotheses have been proposed to account for
these surprising observations.
Initially, HTMV was postulated
to have come too close to the natural disease, thus inducing immune
suppression, as happens in natural measles infection.4,21 This
hypothesis does not account for the delayed increase in mortality and why
later, the effect was noted for girls only. Although measles mortality
might be raised in older girls and women,22,23 it is usually
not higher in girls in the first 3 years of life, which is the period when
high-titre vaccines are associated with increased female mortality. If
anything, boys have higher measles mortality in this age range.23
More importantly, measles infection is usually not associated with
long-term excess mortality.16-19 Hence, HTMV does not mimic
natural measles disease. Furthermore, contradictory to the hypothesis,
results of one large trial of HTMV in Zaire showed no increase in
mortality of high-titre recipients when compared with recipients of
medium-titre measles vaccine, and no increase in female-to-male mortality.24
Second, we noted in
geographical areas with high childhood mortality that standard measles
vaccine was associated with a non-specific benefit on survival, which was
especially strong for girls.6,7 We therefore suggested that the
detrimental effect of HTMV would only be seen in areas with high
mortality,8 for high-titre vaccine did not provide the
non-specific and sex-specific benefits of the standard measles vaccine.3,8,20
The mortality difference would only be seen when girls in the control
groups had received the standard measles vaccine, and it would not be
noted in areas with low mortality since children in these areas had no
non-specific survival benefit from standard measles vaccine. However, in
the time before vaccination, girls did not have higher mortality than
boys.6 Thus, our hypothesis did not fully explain why girls had
a higher mortality than boys in the high-titre group6,8 and why
these effects did not arise in the HTMV trial in Zaire.24
Since both of these
interpretations are unable to account for all observations, we propose an
alternative hypothesis. In the high-titre trials, many children received
DTP or IPV after measles vaccination. Since DTP has been reported to be
associated with an increase in female mortality,12,14 we aimed
to find out whether vaccination with DTP or IPV after high-titre measles
vaccination might have contributed to the increased female-male mortality
ratio. If excess female mortality was indeed caused by subsequent
administration of DTP or IPV vaccines, these three deductions should hold.
First, there should be no excess mortality for high-titre recipients
compared with controls in the period between enrolment and subsequent
reception of DTP or IPV vaccines. Second, recipients of high-titre
vaccine, after being given DTP or IPV, should have a higher female-male
mortality ratio than controls receiving standard measles vaccine at age
9-10 months, and a higher female-male mortality ratio than high-titre
recipients who did not receive additional DTP or IPV. Finally, the
hypothesis should account for contradictions encountered by the other two
hypotheses.
We reanalysed data from three
HTMV trials from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and the Gambia. These trials have
been described in several publications,2,3,25,26 and have been
the subject of a combined meta-analysis.20 The three randomised
trials, although not identical in design, had similar features; the
studies compared children receiving HTMV from age 4 or 5 months, with a
randomised control group given IPV (Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia) or placebo
(Senegal) at a similar age. At the same time as receiving trial vaccines,
children received additional vaccines according to the national
immunisation programme. In Guinea-Bissau, about two-thirds of children
received DTP at the time of enrolment. In Senegal, all children received
DTP-IPV at recruitment and, hence, all controls received IPV at the
beginning of the study. At age 9-10 months, children were invited back;
controls received a standard dose of measles vaccine whereas the children
in the high-titre groups received IPV in Guinea-Bissau and the Gambia. In
Senegal, children attending vaccination at 10 months received yellow-fever
vaccine and the third dose of DTP-IPV at age 9-10 months, and the
high-titre group therefore received DTP-IPV after measles vaccination.
Survival information was obtained through demographic surveillance in the
study areas, and children were followed up to age 3-5 years, as described
previously.2,3,20
To examine the effect of
subsequent DTP vaccinations, we also used data from the post-trial period
in Senegal, when EZ-HT was used as the routine measles vaccine.8
In this study, EZ-HT was administered to children born between March,
1989, and April, 1990. All children were called three times for
vaccination at a health centre and measles vaccine was usually
administered together with DTP-IPV or DTP. In the initial period, children
born March-June, 1989, continued to receive EZ-HT at age 5 months (median
age 4·8 months), usually together with the second dose of DTP-IPV, and
most children received their third dose of DTP-IPV after measles
vaccination. Subsequently, when WHO recommended EZ-HT from age 6 months,1
this vaccination was postponed to the third vaccination session. Hence,
children born July, 1989, to April, 1990, received EZ-HT usually together
with their third dose of DTP-IPV; median age at vaccination was 6·4
months. This change in programme offered an opportunity to test whether
DTP-IPV vaccination after high-titre measles vaccination affected the
female-male mortality ratio.
At all sites, most vaccines,
including additional DTP and IPV, were provided by the respective
projects. Vaccines provided elsewhere have only been taken into
consideration in the survival analysis from the date information on
vaccinations was obtained. The combined effects for all trials were
calculated with Mantel-Haenszel weights.
Role of the funding source
The sponsors of the study had
no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data
interpretation, or writing of the report.
Features of the three
randomised trials that are of relevance for our reanalysis are summarised
in table 1 and figure 1. In these trials, we examined the mortality ratio
between enrolment and subsequent vaccination with DTP or IPV vaccine--ie,
the age interval when the Edmonston-Zagreb group had received HTMV and the
control group had not yet received measles vaccine (comparison of groups A
and B; figure 1). Over this period, mortality rates were as high as 5-8%
(figure 2), but mortality of the high-titre groups was not increased when
compared with that of the control groups (table 2). Although girls had
slightly higher mortality rates than boys, the female-male mortality ratio
for high-titre recipients was not higher than that for controls (table 2,
figure 2).
Number of
deaths/total number of children
First
vaccination
Second
vaccination
High-titre
Control
Age (months)
High-titre group
(number of deaths/total given vaccine)
Control group
Age (months)
High-titre group
Control group
Country
Guinea-Bissau2
23/124
13/118
4-8
EZ-HT
IPV
9+
IPV
SW-ST
Senegal3
134/945
67/634
5
EZ-HT (87/624)
Placebo
10+
DTP-IPV3 + YF
SW-ST
SW-HT (47/321)
+DTP-IPV2
+DTP-IPV2
DTP-IPV3 + YF
Gambia20
3/90
1/89
5
EZ-HT
IPV
9+
IPV
EZ-ST
ST=standard-titre.
SW=Schwarz. YF=yellow fever. IPV2 and IPV3 refer to the second
and third dose of this vaccine.
Table 1: Study
design, age of administration of vaccines, and mortality in
trials of HTMV
Figure 1: Design in high-titre measles
vaccination trials in Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia, and Senegal
Diagram is
descriptive of what happened and which groups have been
compared and does not indicate that the children were
randomised to receive or not receive additional DTP or IPV
vaccines. ST=standard-titre measles vaccine.
Figure 2: Female-male mortality rates (per 100
person-years) and female-male mortality ratios (95% CIs) in
West African high-titre measles vaccination trials
Vaccine (monthly
cohort)
High-titre
vaccine (group A)
Control group
(group B)
Mortality ratio
for high-titre versus control (95% CI)
Mortality rate,
% (deaths/person-years)
Female-male
mortality ratio (95% CI)
Mortality rate,
% (deaths/person-years)
Female-male
mortality ratio (95% CI)
Females
Males
Females
Males
Country
Guinea-Bissau2
EZ-HT
16·2
7·9
2·06
23·7
0
··
0·89 (0·18-4·42)
(2/12·4)
(1/12·7)
(0·19-22·70)
(3/12·7)
(0/9·7)
Senegal3
SW-HT
11·8
9·8
1·21
5·6
9·7
0·58
1·09 (0·53-2·26)
(1-16)
(8/67·3)
(6/61·3)
(0·42-3·47)
(4/71·1)
(7/72·4)
(0·17-1·99)
EZ-HT
5·4
6·7
0·81
··
··
··
··
(1-16)
(4/73·7)
(4/60·0)
(0·20-3·25)
EZ-HT
3·4
0
··
10·0
0
··
0·32 (0·06-1·58)
(17-24)
(2/58·9)
(0/60·4)
(6/59·8)
(0/54·6)
Gambia20
EZ-HT
0
0
··
0
6·7
0·0
0·0 (0·0-38·51)
(0/17·4)
(0/13·7)
(0/15·7)
(1/15·0)
(0·0-37·28)
Combined
··
7·0
5·3
1·31
8·2
5·3
1·55
0·83 (0·46-1·50)
(16/229·7)
(11/208·1)
(0·61-2·80)
(13/159·3)
(8/151·7)
(0·63-3·84)§
Table 2:
Mortality rates and female-male mortality ratios between 4 and
10 months of age in the HTMV trial
Irrespective of whether they
received the second vaccination in the trial at age 9-10 months, the
high-titre groups had a mortality rate of 1·51 (1·10-2·07) from 9-10
months of age compared with the control groups (groups E, G, H vs
groups F, I, J). High-titre recipients who also received DTP or IPV were
compared with children in the control groups given standard measles
vaccine and to other high-titre recipients who did not receive DTP or IPV
vaccines after measles vaccine. In a combined analysis of the three trials
(table 3), the high-titre recipients who received the DTP or IPV vaccine
at age 9-10 months had a higher mortality rate than did controls (groups E
vs F). The mortality ratio was 2·35 (95% CI 1·41-3·91) for girls
and 0·74 (0·45-1·22) for boys (p=0·005). Female-male mortality ratios were
significantly different in the high-titre groups receiving DTP or IPV
vaccine compared with the standard-titre measles vaccine groups (p=0·007;
table 3, figure 2).
HTMV groups
(groups E and G)
Control group
(standard measles vaccine; group F)
Mortality ratio
for high-titre (group E) versus control (group F) (95% CI)
Received
additional DTP-IPV or IPV (group E)
No additional
DTP-IPV or IPV (group G)
Mortality rate,
% (deaths/ person-years)
Female-male
mortality ratio (95% CI)
Mortality rate,
% (deaths/person-years)
Female-male
mortality ratio (95% CI)
Mortality rate,
% (deaths/person-years)
Female-male
mortality ratio (95% CI)
Females
Males
Females
Males
Females
Males
Country and
vaccine group (cohort)
Guinea-Bissau,2
14·7
0·0
··
0·0
0·0
··
4·6
6·7
0·68
1·25
EZ-HT
(11/74·9)
(0/83·6)
(0/2·1)
(0/2·1)
(4/87·2)
(5/74·6)
(0·18-2·55)
(0·52-3·01)
Senegal,3
4·5
2·5
1·81
1·8
4·0
0·44
2·1
3·4
0·62
1·46
SW-HT (1-16)
(17/377·9)
(8/321·6)
(0·78-4·19)
(2/114·5)
(6/149·8)
(0·09-2·19)
(9/429·7)
(14/414·3)
(0·27-1·43)
(0·90-2·38)
Senegal,3
5·4
3·3
1·63
7·0
5·5
1·27
··
··
··
··
EZ-HT (1-16)
(19/353·1)
(10/302·3)
(0·76-3·50)
(13/185·9)
(8/144·9)
(0·53-3·06)
Senegal,3
4·6
3·6
1·27
2·1
6·8
0·31
2·6
5·0
0·52
1·08
EZ-HT (17-24)
(12/262·5)
(10/277·6)
(0·55-2·94)
(1/48·3)/
(4/59·1)
(0·03-2·74)
(7/268·7)
(13/261·3)
(0·21-1·31)
(0·59-1·98)
Gambia,20
1·3
3·6
0·37
0·0
0·0
··
0·0
0
··
··
EZ-HT
(1/76·7)
(2/56·3)
(0·03-4·05)
(0/6·2)
(0/2·8)
(0/66·7)
(0/68·1)
Combined
5·2
2·9
1·84
4·5
5·0
0·83
2·4
3·9
0·59
1·35
(60/1145·1)
(30/1041·4)
(1·19-2·85)
(16/357·0)
(18/358·7)(0·41-1·67)
(20/852·3)
(32/818·3)
(0·34-1·04)
(0·95-1·90)
Table 3:
Mortality rates in HTMV recipients and controls according to
whether they received additional DTP-IPV or IPV vaccinations
at age 9-10 months
In all three trials (table 3),
we examined the female-male mortality ratio for high-titre recipients
according to whether additional DTP or IPV vaccines had been received
(groups E vs G). In the large trial in Senegal, the female-male
mortality ratio was 0·83 (95% CI 0·41-1·67) for HTMV recipients who did
not turn up to receive an additional vaccination at 10 months of age and
1·56 (0·98-2·49) for children who received an additional dose of DTP-IPV
(p=0·142). In a combined analysis of the three trials, high-titre
recipients who had not received additional DTP or IPV vaccines had a
reduced female-male mortality ratio compared with that for those who
received additional doses of DTP or IPV (p=0·059; table 3, figure 2).
An analysis of mortality after
routine use of EZ-HT in Senegal offered a different way to test the effect
of subsequent DTP-IPV vaccinations.8 As seen in table 4,
increased female-male mortality was noted in the first part of the study
for children who had received additional doses of DTP-IPV after HTMV.
Overall, the difference in female-male mortality was very similar for
children who received no subsequent DTP-IPV, whereas it was doubled among
those who received further doses of DTP-IPV after measles vaccination
(p=0·065; table 4).
In a combined analysis of all
three randomised trials and the study of routine use of EZ-HT, the
female-male mortality ratio was 1·93 (95% CI 1·33-2·81) for additional DTP
or IPV vaccines after HTMV and 0·96 (0·69-1·34) for no additional
vaccination (p=0·006).
On the basis of results of
studies from West Africa and Haiti, high-titre measles vaccination is
believed to cause increased female mortality, whereas no problem is
recorded with medium-titre and standard-titre measles vaccines.4,5,20,21
These trials were planned to study vaccine efficacy, not to examine an
association with increased female mortality. Hence, present
interpretations are at best post-hoc hypotheses. When hypothesis testing
is not possible, as in this case, since increased female mortality could
not ethically have been tested in a clinical trial, the preferred
interpretation should account for all data and be capable of resolving
contradictions in existing knowledge. The two present interpretations do
not accord with available data.
Three strands of evidence
suggest that DTP or IPV vaccines administered after high-titre measles
vaccination might have contributed to the increased female-male mortality
ratio noted in the high-titre trials.2,3 First, although the
maximum effect of a presumed deleterious high-titre vaccine would be
expected soon after administration and during infancy when mortality is
highest, no difference in female mortality was recorded between high-titre
recipients and controls until the high-titre recipients received
additional DTP or IPV vaccines. The three West African trials could be
argued to have limited power to assess excess female mortality between 4
and 9 months of age before administration of other vaccines. However, this
argument is not true of the study of routine use of EZ-HT and the trial in
Zaire,24 in which many children received EZ-HT at age 6 months
without any subsequent DTP vaccination. In these situations, female
mortality was not raised. Furthermore, in the Sudan trial, children
vaccinated with EZ-HT had significantly lower mortality than controls
between the first and second vaccination.27
Second, in all the West African
studies, increased mortality in the high-titre groups and raised female
mortality compared with the control groups was only seen after high-titre
recipients received additional vaccines of DTP, IPV, or both. No
difference was seen in the proportion of boys and girls who came back to
receive these vaccinations at age 9-10 months.3 Thus, bias
seems to be unlikely to explain why girls had higher mortality than boys
in the high-titre arm of the study and lower mortality in the control
group. Likewise, socioeconomic background factors cannot account for why
girls had higher mortality than boys in one arm of the study and lower
mortality in the other. No drug, vaccine, or other health intervention was
given in the same way as DTP, IPV, or both in all these studies.
Third, by contrast to the
striking sex-specific effect after DTP or IPV vaccination, the female-male
mortality ratio was not raised in high-titre recipients who did not
receive DTP or IPV after measles vaccine. In Zaire,24 where
recipients of EZ-HT were not given subsequent DTP vaccine because they had
already received three doses of DTP, the high-titre group had a mortality
ratio of 0·5 (95% CI 0·2-1·5) compared with recipients of medium-titre
Edmonston-Zagreb. Girls did not have higher mortality than did boys.
Furthermore, trials in the Gambia,20 Sudan,27 and
Zaire24 included groups of children who received an additional
measles vaccine at age 9 months after the initial high-titre vaccine;
these groups had low mortality and a female-male mortality ratio of 1·0
(data available from authors).
Hence, the raised female
mortality might not have been attributable to HTMV as such, but to
subsequent DTP or IPV vaccinations. This interpretation, based on results
of the West African studies, accords with the finding that an effect was
reported in girls only, and that it was not recorded in studies of HTMV
when DTP or IPV was not administered after measles vaccine.24
The inversion of the
female-male mortality ratios could be attributable to a combination of a
benefit of standard measles vaccine for girls7 and an adverse
effect of DTP or IPV that is more striking in girls.9,11,12,14
In the present study, to separate the effects of DTP and IPV was not
possible. In Senegal, a combined DTP-IPV vaccine was used. In the Gambia,
only IPV was given after HTMV because children had received their DTP
vaccinations before recruitment. In Guinea-Bissau, the two vaccines were
given separately, but the high-titre group was too small to compare the
effects because virtually every child received both DTP and IPV after
high-titre measles vaccination. Since DTP has been associated with
increased female mortality in several other studies,12,14 DTP
at least seems likely to be implicated.
The high-titre problem is
likely to have been attributable to DTP or IPV, but to fully clarify the
effect of HTMVs on child survival is not possible, because results from
different studies are conflicting. In the West African trials, the
mortality rate between 4 and 8 months of age after high-titre vaccination
was high, and only slightly lower for the high-titre group than for
controls, suggesting little benefit from high-titre vaccine. However, in
the study from Zaire,24 high-titre recipients had lower
mortality than did medium-titre recipients. Furthermore, in the Sudan
trial,27 which had a design similar to the West African trials,
EZ-HT vaccine was associated with significantly lower mortality than that
for controls between the first and the second vaccination. If it is
possible to use HTMV again, to examine whether high-titre vaccines have
non-specific beneficial effects similar to standard measles vaccines would
be necessary.
Our reinterpretation raises
questions about the non-specific effects of vaccines and about the
sequence in which they are given. The main purpose of the high-titre
measles vaccination strategy was to enable early immunisation in the
presence of maternal antibodies to prevent measles in infants. In the
high-titre trials, the sequence of vaccinations was changed. Whereas the
three doses of DTP and oral polio are usually administered before standard
measles vaccine at age 9 months, the recipients of HTMV were much more
likely to receive DTP or IPV after measles vaccination. Changes in the
sequence of different vaccinations have not been analysed in other studies
of childhood mortality. Increased mortality after HTMV has previously been
pointed out to be only seen in areas with high mortality, whereas in areas
with low mortality no effect was seen.8 Possibly some of this
difference might be attributable to these areas having more efficient
programmes providing all the DTP vaccinations before early measles
vaccination.
The present study adds further
weight to the observation that DTP in populations with a high burden of
diseases may have little benefit, particularly for girls.7,9,11,12,14
Very little basic research has been done to understand the biological
mechanisms of non-specific immune stimulation caused by vaccines and why
they should vary by sex. A few studies in animals have compared live and
inactivated vaccines containing the same antigen28,29 and
reported that live vaccines promote a T-helper 1-type response, which
provides better protection when challenged with live antigen. An
aluminium-based inactivated vaccine has been reported to provoke stronger
adverse reactions in women than in men.30 As our results
suggest that vaccines and the sequence in which they are given could have
an effect on child survival, this topic deserves much greater attention
when examining the effect of routine immunisations or new vaccines on
child survival in developing countries. The challenge will be to design
and implement appropriate trials to assess the non-specific effects and
test the hypothesis.
Contributors
The high-titre trials were
planned by P Aaby and H Whittle. The trials in Guinea-Bissau were
implemented by M Sodemann, M Jakobsen, A Poulsen, and I M Lisse. P Aaby, F
Simondon, and B Samb completed the trial in Senegal. B Cisse and A
Rodrigues assured long-term follow-up in Senegal and Guinea-Bissau. H
Whittle was responsible for the trial in the Gambia. P Aaby and H Jensen
did the reanalysis. All authors contributed to the final version of the
report.
Conflict of interest
statement
None declared.
Acknowledgments
The study received financial
support from the Danish Council for Development Research, Danish Medical
Research, DANIDA, and the EU Commission's INCO programme (IC18T95-0011).
PA holds a research professorship funded by Novo Nordisk Foundation.
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DISCLAIMER:
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is for general information purposes only and is not to be construed as
reflecting the knowledge or opinions of the publisher, and is not to be
construed or intended as providing medical or legal advice. The decision
whether or not to vaccinate is an important and complex issue and should
be made by you, and you alone, in consultation with your health care
provider.
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth."
-- Albert Einstein, letter to a friend, 1901
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William C. Jarvis, September 28, 1820
"What's the point of vaccination if it doesn't protect you from the unvaccinated?"
-- Sandy Gottstein
"Who gets to decide what the greater good is and how many will be sacrificed to it?"