Measles vaccination and child mortality in Burkina Faso

The demographic evaluation of vaccination programmes is rarely done, the most common form of evaluation consists of measuring vaccination coverage, whereas the objective is to reduce morbidity or mortality, especially for measles which is the main life-threatening pathology for African children who have not been vaccinated. Before the vaccine was available, half of the deaths of children between the ages of one and five, in 1957, in the valley of the Senegal river was attributed to measles (Boutillier, Cantrelle et al, 1962). Although the benefits of vaccination are obvious, evaluation is difficult, since there is often a lack of data. For example, in Burundi, based on DHS surveys, because of a lack of information on the vaccination status of dead children, the study used the vaccination status of children who were close to the deceased, so the lack of association found between vaccination and mortality is therefore not surprising (Dunn and Yumkella, 1990). In Senegal, Desgrées Du Loû and Pison (1995) found a relation between a reduction in mortality and an increase in vaccinations against measles, but although the conclusion is plausible, individual links could not be studied because of the lack of information on the vaccination status of each child before 1992, "in the absence of a vaccination card, this status is reconstructed from statements made by the mothers as to the number of vaccination sessions the child took part in, and not from information on the type of vaccination". However, Garenne and Cantrelle (1986), by comparing children vaccinated against measles with others not vaccinated in a neighbouring area show a reduction of 20% of mortality between the ages of one and ten years.