BMJ 2000;320:938 ( 1 April )

Letters

Unexpected beneficial effects of measles immunisation

    Measles vaccination may be marker for other health seeking behaviours
    Socioeconomic confounding may also play a part
    Other conditions with reduced mortality could have been specified
    Number of squint operations in Britain has decreased
    Who brought measles?
    Authors' reply

Measles vaccination may be marker for other health seeking behaviours

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR---The hypothesis presented by Shann in his editorial that measles immunisation provides non-specific immune stimulation sufficient to decrease mortality from other diseases is interesting.1 However, I don't really believe that the studies have ruled out the more likely explanation that measles immunisation is just a marker for other socioculturally determined health seeking behaviours. The fact that similar effects are not seen for other vaccines does not exclude measles immunisation from being correlated with health seeking behaviours.

Measles vaccination is different from other vaccinations in its timing, and it is often associated with national campaigns (including in some of the studies Shann references). Are there any data that rule out the confounding effect of sociocultural determinants?

Craig Dalton, director. 
Hunter Public Health Unit, Wallsend 2287, Australia cdalt@doh.health.nsw.gov.au


1. Shann F. A little bit of measles does you good. BMJ 1999; 319: 4-5[Free Full Text]. (3 July.)

Socioeconomic confounding may also play a part

EDITOR---Shann in his editorial on measles1 discusses the hypothesis that standard dose Schwartz measles vaccine reduces mortality from conditions other than measles. He refers to the observation that measles causes only . . . [Full text of this article]
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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • MacEwen, C J, Chakrabarti, H S (2004). Why is squint surgery in children in decline?. Br J Ophthalmol 88: 509-511 [Abstract] [Full text]  
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