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March 23, 2001
“The Japanese Experience With Vaccinating Schoolchildren
Against Influenza” New England Journal of Medicine (www.nejm.org)
(03/22/01) Vol. 344, No. 12, P. 889;
Reichert, Thomas A.; Sugaya, Norio; Fedson, David S.; et al.
Researchers investigated the monthly rates of death from
all causes and death attributed to pneumonia and influenza, as well as rates of
vaccination, in the United States and Japan between 1949 and 1998. From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, most
schoolchildren in Japan were vaccinated against the flu. The laws were relaxed in 1987, and repealed
seven years later, and vaccination levels dropped significantly after
that. The authors suggest that herd
immunity may have been achieved in Japan, and if that occurred, the incidence
of flu and influenza-related mortality should have dropped among older
individuals. The vaccination program in
Japan helped to reduce excess mortality rates in the country from up to four
times those seen in the United States to values similar to ones in the United
States. Japan’s vaccination effort
averted 37,000 to 49,000 deaths annually; however, after that program was
ended, excess mortality rates rose.
Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that vaccinating
schoolchildren against the flu offers protection and helps to lower
influenza-related mortality among older persons.
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