ArticleHuman vaccines & immunotherapeutics2025
Commentary: Beneficial non-specific effects of measles vaccine: Fact or fiction?
Article in Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- The origin of non-specific effects of vaccines and the role of randomised clinical trials.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A PLOS One review has claimed that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) show no beneficial nonspecific effects (NSEs) of measles vaccine (MV). Since this claim contradicts previous meta-analyses, we examined the contradictory views. RCTs of MV in low-income countries have mainly tested standard-titer-measles vaccine (STMV) vs high-titer-measles-vaccine (HTMV) (1980-90s) and two-dose vs one-dose of STMV (2000-10s). The PLOS One review claimed no NSEs in the RCTs of two-dose MV. The negative effect of HTMV was considered a specific effect due to an excessive vaccine dose. However, this does not explain why the negative effects only applied to females. Taking subsequent vaccinations into consideration in our reanalysis, one dose of STMV/HTMV versus control vaccine in the age interval 4-9 months, before controls received routine MV, was associated with a mortality ratio of 0.61 (0.37-0.99). After 9 months, randomization to STMV compared with HTMV-followed-by-a-non-live-vaccine had an MR of 0.72 (0.55-0.95), significantly better for females. Most RCTs in low-income countries experience interactions with vaccine campaigns and subsequent routine vaccinations. When these interactions are considered, the RCTs selected by the PLOS One review do show beneficial NSEs. NSEs are still critical factors to take into consideration in planning of vaccination policy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.