Comment on "Long-term measles-induced immunomodulation increases overall childhood infectious disease mortality"

Abstract

Mina et al (Reports, 8 May 2015, p. 694) used population-level statistical analysis to argue that measles infection results in a 2- to 3-year immunomodulation, implicating measles in substantially more child mortality than previously thought. We show, using both simulation and data from Iceland, that the statistical approach used may be confounded by the 2-year periodicity of measles incidence in the areas studied.