According to Edward J. Edwardes, it was in the armies of Europe where the importance of revaccination was discovered. In the pre-vaccination era, smallpox was not a serious problem in the army, as the majority of recruits had already contracted the virus during their childhood and had therefore developed an immunity to it. In the decades that followed widespread vaccination, army doctors began to notice that many servicemen were contracting smallpox in adulthood; the reason for this was that vaccination in infancy did not guarantee lifelong immunity from the virus, and the protection would wear off in adulthood. With this discovery, armies in Europe began to revaccinate all recruits upon entering the army. Britain slow to adopt revaccination When compared with the German states in the first half of the nineteenth century, Britain was much slower in adopting compulsory vaccination. The same was true in the army, as the German states began revaccinating all new recruits when the problem was first realized in the 1830s, whereas Britain did not introduce mandatory revaccination in the army until 1858. Although only Home Army figures are available in this time, we can see that the smallpox trends of the eighteenth century were repeating in the British Army, with waves of the disease coming at regular intervals. After 1858, the smallpox death rate decreases considerably in the Home Army, except during the Great Pandemic of the 1870s, and there were little-to-no deaths in the final years of the 1800s. Even slower progress in the navy and abroad While the Home Army brought its smallpox death rate down considerably by revaccinating all recruits, the impact was not as strongly felt in the Royal Navy, nor by the British Forces in India. Revaccination also applied to these armies, however their environments did not allow for the change to take hold as quickly; this was due to the nature of the navy, where recruits lived in close quarters with limited sanitation methods, and the fact that smallpox was a serious and endemic problem throughout the Indian subcontinent until the 1970s. The smallpox death rate in the British Navy was brought down considerably by the end of the century. Data suggests that the disease was likely also in decline among soldiers in India.

DIC (Eq 11) for fitted models in the pre-vaccine period (January 2020—August 2020).

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Background:
The Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a large-scale, multi-purpose longitudinal dataset providing information about babies born at the beginning of the 21st century, their progress through life, and the families who are bringing them up, for the four countries of the United Kingdom. The original objectives of the first MCS survey, as laid down in the proposal to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in March 2000, were:

• to chart the initial conditions of social, economic and health advantages and disadvantages facing children born at the start of the 21st century, capturing information that the research community of the future will require
• to provide a basis for comparing patterns of development with the preceding cohorts (the National Child Development Study, held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33004, and the 1970 Birth Cohort Study, held under GN 33229)
• to collect information on previously neglected topics, such as fathers' involvement in children's care and development
• to focus on parents as the most immediate elements of the children's 'background', charting their experience as mothers and fathers of newborn babies in the year 2000, recording how they (and any other children in the family) adapted to the newcomer, and what their aspirations for her/his future may be
• to emphasise intergenerational links including those back to the parents' own childhood
• to investigate the wider social ecology of the family, including social networks, civic engagement and community facilities and services, splicing in geo-coded data when available

Additional objectives subsequently included for MCS were:

• to provide control cases for the national evaluation of Sure Start (a government programme intended to alleviate child poverty and social exclusion)
• to provide samples of adequate size to analyse and compare the smaller countries of the United Kingdom, and include disadvantaged areas of England

Further information about the MCS can be found on the Centre for Longitudinal Studies web pages.

The content of MCS studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.

The first sweep (MCS1) interviewed both mothers and (where resident) fathers (or father-figures) of infants included in the sample when the babies were nine months old, and the second sweep (MCS2) was carried out with the same respondents when the children were three years of age. The third sweep (MCS3) was conducted in 2006, when the children were aged five years old, the fourth sweep (MCS4) in 2008, when they were seven years old, the fifth sweep (MCS5) in 2012-2013, when they were eleven years old, the sixth sweep (MCS6) in 2015, when they were fourteen years old, and the seventh sweep (MCS7) in 2018, when they were seventeen years old.
End User Licence versions of MCS studies:
The End User Licence (EUL) versions of MCS1, MCS2, MCS3, MCS4, MCS5, MCS6 and MCS7 are held under UK Data Archive SNs 4683, 5350, 5795, 6411, 7464, 8156 and 8682 respectively. The longitudinal family file is held under SN 8172.

Sub-sample studies:
Some studies based on sub-samples of MCS have also been conducted, including a study of MCS respondent mothers who had received assisted fertility treatment, conducted in 2003 (see EUL SN 5559). Also, birth registration and maternity hospital episodes for the MCS respondents are held as a separate dataset (see EUL SN 5614).

Release of Sweeps 1 to 4 to Long Format (Summer 2020)To support longitudinal research and make it easier to compare data from different time points, all data from across all sweeps is now in a consistent format. The update affects the data from sweeps 1 to 4 (from 9 months to 7 years), which are updated from the old/wide to a new/long format to match the format of data of sweeps 5 and 6 (age 11 and 14 sweeps). The old/wide formatted datasets contained one row per family with multiple variables for different respondents. The new/long formatted datasets contain one row per respondent (per parent or per cohort member) for each MCS family. Additional updates have been made to all sweeps to harmonise variable labels and enhance anonymisation.

How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:
For information on how to access biomedical data from MCS that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.

Secure Access datasets:
Secure Access versions of the MCS have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence or Special Licence (see 'Access data' tab above).

Secure Access versions of the MCS...

Percentage of out-of-vocabulary words.

Neisseria meningitidis is a Gram-negative, encapsulated diplococcal bacterium and is the causative agent for invasive meningococcal disease. Although relatively rare around the globe, invasive meningococcal disease is widely feared because of its high mortality rate even in otherwise healthy individuals. The onset of invasive meningococcal disease typically begins within three to seven days of infection, but can occur as early as one day after infection. If left untreated, meningococcal disease progresses rapidly. Even with appropriate treatment, up to 10% of all cases still result in death within 24 to 48 hours of symptom onset. This rapid onset and progression of the disease emphasizes the need for a prophylactic approach by vaccination. Read More

DIC (Eq 11) of stochastic Gompertz model (M2) fit to data for Germany for various splice thresholds.

BackgroundReducing maternal mortality, neonatal mortality and under 5-year mortality are important targets addressed by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. Despite studies reported an improvement in maternal and child health indicators, the progress achieved is not uniform across regions. Due to the increasing availability of mobile phones in low and middle-income countries, mHealth could impact considerably on reducing maternal and child mortality and maximizing women's access to quality care, from the antenatal stage to the post-natal period.MethodsA systematic literature review of mHealth interventions aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Primary outcomes were maternal mortality, neonatal mortality, and under-five mortality. Secondary outcomes were skilled birth attendance, antenatal care (ANC) and post-natal care (PNC) attendance, and vaccination/immunization coverage. We searched for articles published from January 2010 to December 2020 in Embase, Medline and Web of Science. Quantitative comparative studies were included. The protocol was developed according to the PRISMA Checklist and published in PROSPERO [CRD42019109434]. The Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies was used to assess the quality of the eligible studies.Results23 studies were included in the review, 16 undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa and 7 in Southern Asia. Most studies used SMS or voice message reminders for education purposes. Only two studies reported outcomes on neonatal mortality, with positive results. None of the studies reported results on maternal mortality or under-five mortality. Outcomes on skilled birth attendance, ANC attendance, PNC attendance, and vaccination coverage were reported in six, six, five, and eleven studies, respectively. Most of these studies showed a positive impact of mHealth interventions on the secondary outcomes.ConclusionSimple mHealth educational interventions based on SMS and voice message reminders are effective at supporting behavior change of pregnant women and training of health workers, thus improving ANC and PNC attendance, vaccination coverage and skilled birth attendance. Higher quality studies addressing the role of mHealth in reducing maternal and child mortality in resource-limited settings are needed, especially in Southern Asia.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42019109434, identifier CRD42019109434.

Dictionary size is measured in number of words.