Infant Mortality Rates Fall Where 'Immunisation' Rates Are Low

New Zealand Is Ahead Of Many Countries For Infant Well Being, But Low For Immunisations

The Unicef report, the State of the World's Children, showed New Zealand was on a par or ahead of the world on several counts for child wellbeing, including infant mortality, but it exposed the nation's low ranking for immunisations.

Of the six immunisations for one-year-old babies, New Zealand was well below the developed world average for four of them. It equalled the others.

In the worst example, only 79 per cent of one-year-olds had received immunisation against measles. In the developed world, 98 per cent had received it by that age and in the least developed countries, 76 per cent had received it.

The Unicef report showed New Zealand lagging the developed world (98 per cent) by 7 percentage points for rates of immunisation against pertussis.

The improvement in New Zealand's under-five child mortality rates from 21 per cent in 1970 to 11 per cent in 1990 to 6 per cent in 2007 fell almost perfectly in line with the developed world.

A child mortality rate of 6 per cent put the country on a par with Britain, Australia and Canada but behind Israel, the Netherlands, France and Germany.

The mortality rate for under-one-year-olds had also fallen from 9 per cent in 1990 to 5 per cent in 2007.

Source: Stuff.co.nz, 26 January 2009.

And the same thing is happening in India

According to One World South Asia, child death rates have lowered at the same time as 'immunisation' rates:

'
May 11, 2006
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/132610/1/6684

Two recent health surveys carried out by the Government have thrown up mixed results. While one reports that the Infant Mortality Rate has fallen below 60 for the first time in the country, the worrying sign is that the already low immunisation rates are showing further decline.

The most alarming is the case of Uttar Pradesh, which shows a fall in immunisation from 43.7 per cent in 1998-99 to 28.1 per cent in the latest data.

In 1998-1999, 54 per cent of the children in the country were reported to be fully immunised. But a district household survey 2002-2004, the data for which was released last month, shows a decline in this to 47.6 per cent. In 1989-99, India had one-third of the world?s non-immunised children.

Immunisation rates seem to have fallen across the country, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which account for 40 per cent of the total children in the age group of zero to one who need immunisation. But unlike Uttar Pradesh, Bihar has shown only a marginal decline, from 24.4 to 22.4 per cent.

Experts believe that the focus on polio eradication, at the cost of routine immunisation, could have contributed to the decline.

The other states showing low figures are Rajasthan (25.4 per cent), Tripura (26.7 per cent), Jharkhand (29.3 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (32.5 per cent).

The states at the other end of the spectrum are Tamil Nadu (with an immunisation rate of 92.1 per cent), Kerala (81.2 per cent), Pondicherry (89.4 per cent), Goa (81.5 per cent) and Himachal Pradesh (79.4 per cent).

There is good news, however, on the infant mortality front. For the first time, India has reported IMR below 60, with the survey from Registrar General of India released recently showing 58 deaths per 1,000 live births in the country.

Though the rates are still high compared to other countries, the figures have shown decline from 68/1,000 live births in 2000, and 60/1,000 live births in 2004.' (Indian Express).

Child Mortality Rate is Lower in Areas with No Unicef Vaccination Programme

A UN programme to combat child deaths from disease in West Africa has failed, a Johns Hopkins University study says.

Unicef spent $27m (£17m) rolling out vaccinations, vitamin A pills and bed nets to protect against malaria from 2001 to 2005 in areas of 11 countries.

The study, published in the British medical journal Lancet, claimed that child deaths fell by 13% in areas of Benin targeted by Unicef.

But in areas of the country where the programme was not introduced, the death rate dropped by almost 25%.

In Mali the researchers found death rates fell by 24% in districts where the Unicef programme was set up, but 31% elsewhere in the country.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8455444.stm

So in Benin there was a 12% DECREASE in deaths when children WEREN'T getting vaccinated and a 7% DECREASE in Mali!

Infant mortality rates regressed against number of vaccine doses routinely given: Is there a biochemical or synergistic toxicity?

The infant mortality rate (IMR) is one of the most important indicators of the socio-economic well-being and public health conditions of a country. The US childhood immunization schedule specifies 26 vaccine doses for infants aged less than 1 year—the most in the world—yet 33 nations have lower IMRs. Using linear regression, the immunization schedules of these 34 nations were examined and a correlation coefficient of r = 0.70 (p < 0.0001) was found between IMRs and the number of vaccine doses routinely given to infants. Nations were also grouped into five different vaccine dose ranges: 12–14, 15–17, 18–20, 21–23, and 24–26. The mean IMRs of all nations within each group were then calculated. Linear regression analysis of unweighted mean IMRs showed a high statistically significant correlation between increasing number of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates, with r = 0.992 (p = 0.0009). Using the Tukey-Kramer test, statistically significant differences in mean IMRs were found between nations giving 12–14 vaccine doses and those giving 21–23, and 24–26 doses. A closer inspection of correlations between vaccine doses, biochemical or synergistic toxicity, and IMRs is essential.

Source: Hum Exp Toxicol May 4, 2011.
http://het.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/04/0960327111407644

The full text is available free of charge at the above link.

Early diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccination associated with higher female mortality and no difference in male mortality in a cohort of low birthweight children: an observational study within a randomised trial

Background Studies from low-income countries have suggested that diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine provided after Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination may have a negative effect on female survival. The authors examined the effect of DTP in a cohort of low birthweight (LBW) infants.

Methods 2320 LBW newborns were visited at 2, 6 and 12 months of age to assess nutritional and vaccination status. The authors examined survival until the 6-month visit for children who were DTP vaccinated and DTP unvaccinated at the 2-month visit.

Results Two-thirds of the children had received DTP at 2 months and 50 deaths occurred between the 2-month and 6-month visits. DTP vaccinated children had a better anthropometric status for all indices than DTP unvaccinated children. Small mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) was the strongest predictor of mortality. The death rate ratio (DRR) for DTP vaccinated versus DTP unvaccinated children differed significantly for girls (DRR 2.45; 95% CI 0.93 to 6.45) and boys (DRR 0.53; 95% CI 0.23 to 1.20) (p=0.018, homogeneity test). Adjusting for MUAC, the overall effect for DTP vaccinated children was 2.62 (95% CI 1.34 to 5.09); DRR was 5.68 (95% CI 1.83 to 17.7) for girls and 1.29 (95% CI 0.56 to 2.97) for boys (p=0.023, homogeneity test). While anthropometric indices were a strong predictor of mortality among boys, there was little or no association for girls.

Conclusion Surprisingly, even though the children with the best nutritional status were vaccinated early, early DTP vaccination was associated with increased mortality for girls.

Source: Arch Dis Child doi:10.1136/archdischild-2011-300646.

Full article here: http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2012/02/13/archdischild-2011-300646.full