A Randomised Trial of an Additional Measles Vaccine at 4 Months of Age to Reduce Child Mortality and to Explore the Role of Maternal Measles Antibodies for the Beneficial Non-specific Effects of Measles Vaccine

Overall objective: To conduct a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to examine whether an early two-dose measles vaccination (MV) strategy at 4 and 9 months will reduce child mortality compared with the WHO strategy of one dose of MV at 9 months.

Specific hypotheses Hypothesis I) Two doses of MV at 4 and 9 months compared with the standard dose of MV at 9 months will reduce mortality by 30% between 4 months and 5 years of age1. As in a previous trial it is expected that the beneficial effect is strongest for girls.

Hypothesis II) Children receiving MV at 4 months in the presence of maternal measles antibodies (MatAb) will have 35% lower mortality between 4 months and 5 years of age than children receiving MV at 4 months with no detectable MatAb.

Implications: These hypotheses are based on a previous RCT showing strong beneficial effects of providing an early measles vaccine, in particular among children with MatAb.