GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

International child health programmes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are justified in terms of their impact on child survival. However, the estimated effects are usually calculated from performance indicators and assumptions about efficacy based on small-scale target-specific studies. This approach is clearly not sufficient as there is little follow-up of how the programmes are implemented in real life.   The Vaccine Group which started as an Interest Group has the following objectives:

• To examine the non-specific effects  on child survival of specific vaccines and other childhood interventions.
• To examine the impact of vaccinations on child survival at selected INDEPTH Centres.
• To register information routinely on all interventions in childhood, such as all vaccinations, micronutrient supplementation and de-worming given at health centres or in campaigns.
• To utilise the information gathered to measure the overall health impact of child health programmes.
• To measure the non-specific and specific effects of modification in current practice (see early measles vacination trial)