Studies Comparing Vaccination To Other Health Improvements On Tropical Islands

[retroactive]

I've heard rumour of these early island studies on vaccines comparing their efficacy with respect to improved nutrition and medical care. Does anyone have a link to those? Thanks a bunch

 

[schultz]

I would love to see those as well. Ray once mentioned a study comparing vaccines to improved food and sanitation. He said the study was done by the WHO if I recall.

 

[Elderflower j58]

At 22 mins he talks about this, but it's
well worth listening to the whole interview.
Absolutely fascinating


@retroactive

 

[Giraffe]

I would love to see those as well. Ray once mentioned a study comparing vaccines to improved food and sanitation. He said the study was done by the WHO if I recall.

This was discussed already in another thread:

Vaccines And Immunity 1 And 2 - KMUD, 2014

I think we have found the studies that Peat meant. I'd like to add that back then, when I was searching for these studies, I have come across more work that compared the effect of nutrition to other measures. They found that vaccines/medical intervention did not offer any aditional benefit. One of those studies was done in India. Once you find a publication, you will find references to other ones.

 

[schultz]

This was discussed already in another thread:

Vaccines And Immunity 1 And 2 - KMUD, 2014

I think we have found the studies that Peat meant. I'd like to add that back then, when I was searching for these studies, I have come across more work that compared the effect of nutrition to other measures. They found that vaccines/medical intervention did not offer any aditional benefit. One of those studies was done in India. Once you find a publication, you will find references to other ones.

Thank you @Giraffe you are awesome!

 

[schultz]

This was discussed already in another thread:

Vaccines And Immunity 1 And 2 - KMUD, 2014

I think we have found the studies that Peat meant. I'd like to add that back then, when I was searching for these studies, I have come across more work that compared the effect of nutrition to other measures. They found that vaccines/medical intervention did not offer any aditional benefit. One of those studies was done in India. Once you find a publication, you will find references to other ones.

You are indeed correct. The paper you linked, "INCAP studies of nutrition and infection," by Scrimshaw has dozens of citations that I now need to follow-up on, including the 9 part "Three Villages" study that Ray was talking about. So that should keep me busy for a long time... And the data is not straight-forward it seems. For one thing, in the feeding village, participation varied across the 5 years of the study and the percentage of children who utilized the supplied food supplement also varied. Had there been 100% participation I feel as though the results would have been quite dramatic.

As far as I can tell (I have only glanced at the 9 part paper thus far) the food they were supplied was "Incaparina" mixed with skim milk powder and sugar [EDIT: and a banana lol]. Incaparina appears to be corn flour, soy flour and added vitamins (including iron). It's possible it used to be cottonseed flour during the study. Not exactly my first choice for improving nutrition. But still there seemed to be pretty good results from this.

Imagine if we (the forum members) could design a study like this. Even better, Ray mentioned he had almost participated in a research program involving maternal and infant nutrition in South America (Argentina possibly?) but that it was cancelled a couple weeks before he was about to start due to some civil unrest (coup?). I'd love to see that research done now. Or we can invest billions into vaccines I suppose..... *sigh*