Frontiers in Public Health, Mar 19;6:79
Dr. Aaby was involved in the original introduction of the DPT vaccine to children in this African country in 1981. Even now, it is the most commonly used vaccine in low-income countries with poor health infrastructure.
In this paper, Aaby et al are reviewing the outcome for those children who had received their DPT at age 6 to 35 months back in 1981.
When the children were weighed at the vaccine introduction, those who were vaccinated had better weight for their age. They were expected to have lower mortality in general compared to those children who had been considered too fragile and/or underweight to be vaccinated. When Aaby et al went back to analyze the data in the recent past, they found the unexpected result that the vaccinated children had twofold higher mortality than unvaccinated children.
QUOTE: “Although lower mortality was expected for DTP-vaccinated children compared with the frail unvaccinated children, DTP vaccination was associated with higher mortality, particularly in girls.” (emphasis added)
When two other studies were analyzed, as well, covering both urban and rural areas, the authors had to draw the same conclusion.
