Jensen, ML;
Dave, S;
Schimvan der Loeff, M;
da Costa, C;
Vincent, T;
Leligdowicz, A;
Benn, CS;
... Aaby, P; + view all
(2006)
Vaccinia Scars Associated with Improved Survival among Adults in Rural Guinea-Bissau.
PLoS ONE
, 1
(1)
, Article e101. 10.1371/journal.pone.0000101.
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Abstract
Background: In urban Guinea-Bissau, adults with a vaccinia scar had better survival but also a higher prevalence of HIV-2 infection. We therefore investigated the association between vaccinia scar and survival and HIV infection in a rural area of Guinea-Bissau. Methodology/Principal Findings: In connection with a study of HIV in rural Guinea-Bissau, we assessed vaccinia and BCG scars in 193 HIV-1 or HIV-2 infected and 174 uninfected participants. Mortality was assessed after 2½–3 years of follow-up. The analyses were adjusted for age, sex, village, and HIV status. The prevalence of vaccinia scar was associated with age, village, and HIV-2 status but not with sex and schooling. Compared with individuals without any scar, individuals with a vaccinia scar had better survival (mortality rate ratio (MR) = 0.22 (95% CI 0.08–0.61)), the MR being 0.19 (95% CI 0.06–0.57) for women and 0.40 (95% CI 0.04–3.74) for men. Estimates were similar for HIV-2 infected and HIV-1 and HIV-2 uninfected individuals. The HIV-2 prevalence was higher among individuals with a vaccinia scar compared to individuals without a vaccinia scar (RR = 1.57 (95% CI 1.02–2.36)). Conclusion: The present study supports the hypothesis that vaccinia vaccination may have a non-specific beneficial effect on adult survival.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Vaccinia Scars Associated with Improved Survival among Adults in Rural Guinea-Bissau |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0000101 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000101 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2006 Jensen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The study received financial support from the British Medical Research Council and the Danish Medical Research Council, DANIDA, Novo Nordisk Foundation and Danish National Research Foundation. PA holds a research professorship grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation. These institutions played no role in the conduct of the study, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and in the preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/43724 |
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