Early vaccination against measles in developing countries

doi:10.1136/bmj.a406

Published 24 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a406
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a406

Editorials

Early vaccination against measles in developing countries

May improve control of measles but is no substitute for dosesgiven at 9-15 months

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

Before vaccination, measles was ubiquitous and caused many deathsin children under 5 years. Routine vaccination in high incomecountries since the 1960s has successfully controlled measles.In low income countries, measles vaccination was included inthe World Health Organization’s expanded immunisationprogramme since 1974. Interruption of measles transmission hasbeen documented in most countries of the Americas,¹ and therecent increase in vaccination coverage in Africa has been followedby an estimated 75% decline in annual mortality over the pastdecade. However, the disease remains an important and unacceptablecause of death in Africa and South Asia.

In the linked randomised controlled trial, Martins and colleaguesassess the protective efficacy of vaccination at 4.5 monthsin infants during an outbreak in Guinea-Bissau.² In most nations,vaccination strategies are based on the provision of a firstdose at age 9-15 months and either a second scheduled dose ora subsequent . . . [Full text of this article]

H Broutin, postdoctoral researcher ¹, M A Miller, associate director for research ¹

¹ Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA

broutinh@mail.nih.gov

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Protective efficacy of standard Edmonston-Zagreb measles vaccination in infants aged 4.5 months: interim analysis of a randomised clinical trial: Cesário L Martins, May-Lill Garly, Carlito Balé, Amabelia Rodrigues, Henrik Ravn, Hilton C Whittle, Ida M Lisse, and Peter Aaby
BMJ 2008 337: a661. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]