Making sense of emerging evidence on the non-specific effects of the BCG vaccine on malaria risk and neonatal mortality

Abstract

Vaccines are, indisputably, one of the greatest public health interventions, with a substantial positive impact on child survival. The remarkable declines in child mortality observed during the last quarter of a century, whereby global under 5 deaths were essentially halved, go hand in hand with the estimated 2–3 million child deaths prevented by vaccines annually.1 The premise for this is clear: vaccines directly prevent a variety of life-threatening diseases. Vaccines can also be held directly responsible for the eradication of smallpox, the first and only infectious disease extinguished by the action of humans and are paving the way for the disappearance of other terrible infections such as polio, measles or rubella.