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Immunization Status And Child Survival In Rural Ghana, Philomena Nyarko, Brian Wells Pence, Cornelius Debpuur

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

For three decades, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) has been promoted as one of the key child health interventions in developing countries. Vaccines for six childhood diseases (diphtheria, measles, pertussis, poliomyelitis, tetanus, and tuberculosis) have been shown to be efficacious in preventing disease-specific morbidity and mortality, yet not all commentators are convinced that the EPI reduces all-cause child mortality. Numerous studies have found that measles vaccination programs substantially reduce all-cause child mortality, but recent findings from Guinea-Bissau suggest that diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) vaccine may increase all-cause child mortality. The present study uses five years of data from …