India, July 15 -- Emergency vaccination programs carried out during disease outbreaks have helped reduce deaths by around 60 percent over the past 23 years, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Global Health.
The study, supported by the Gavi vaccine alliance, was done in partnership with researchers from the Burnet Institute in Australia. It's the first major research to look at how emergency vaccinations have improved global health and safety.
"For the first time, we are able to comprehensively quantify the benefit, in human and economic terms, of deploying vaccines against outbreaks of some of the deadliest infectious diseases," Gavi chief Sania Nishtar said in a statement.
"This study demonstrates cl...