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Measles vaccination in Africa: by how much could routine coverage be improved?
W J Edmunds1, N J Gay, A M Henao Restrepo
1PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, NW9 5EQ, London, UK. jedmunds@phls.org.uk
Vaccine
|September 25, 2001
Abstract:
Assuming that the level of Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) coverage gives a measure of access to immunisation services, it is possible to derive what fraction of infants are not immunised against measles due to under-utilisation of existing services (rather than unavailability of services). According to the most recent official statistics, the overall coverage for measles vaccine is 53% in Africa (10% lower than for BCG). This difference amounts to 3 million African children who will not be vaccinated against measles this year even though they probably have access to immunisation services.