Japanese encephalitis vaccine cuts disease rate in Nepal
In many Asian countries, JE is associated with significant mortality; nearly a third of cases are fatal in some places, and up to half of survivors are left with neuropsychiatric sequelae. There is no treatment for JE, but vaccines can prevent disease. In the Nepalese campaign, t he SA 14-14-2 J E vaccine was first administered in 23 districts with the highest JE rates, and then expanded to additional districts as well as integrated into the normal childhood vaccine schedule. An impact assessment in 2010 found that the post-campaign JE rate was 72% lower than expected without any immunizations, but data in some districts was still early and limited. In the new work, Shyam Upreti of the Ministry of Health in Nepal, along with colleagues from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and others, used a more complete dataset, collected through Nepal's routine surveillance system from 2004 through 2014. At least three years of post-vaccination campaign data were availa...