MEASLES VACCINATION AND CHILDHOOD MORTALITY IN RURAL BANGLADESH

To ascertain whether measles vaccination was associated with reduced mortality rates in rural Bangladeshi children the authors conducted a case-control study in four contiguous areas two of which had participated in an intensive measles vaccination program which began in the spring of 1982. Cases were 536 children who had died in the four-area region at the age of 10-60 months between April 1982 and December 1984....Measles vaccination was associated with a 36%...proportionate reduction in the overall rate of death and a 57%...reduction in the rate of deaths directly attributed to measles or ascribed to diarrhea respiratory illness or malnutrition....Moreover children vaccinated in 1982 exhibited a sustained reduction in the rate of death in 1983 and 1984. The authors concluded that measles vaccination was associated with a pronounced and sustained reduction in the rate of death among children in this study. (EXCERPT)