The Bandim Health Project is a health and demographic surveillance site in Guinea-Bissau. Surprisingly, our research has shown that vaccines not only protect against the target disease, but also modifies susceptibility to unrelated infections. These so-called “non-specific effects” have major consequences for child survival. The results indicate that the international community can save millions of children in the world’s poorest countries, if the vaccination programs are optimized to take into account both specific and non-specific effects of vaccines. INDEPTH BHP is formally placed under the National Institute of Public Health in Guinea-Bissau (INASA). BHP is a member of the Indepth Network, a global network of health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) field sites in Africa, Asia and Oceania. Read more about Indepth Network. BHP follows a population of more than 200,000 individuals in urban and rural Guinea-Bissau. This provides a Unique platform for conducting health research. One of the major research areas is to study the real life effects of vaccines, vitamin A and other health interventions. Based on BHP's research, in 2012, the Danish National Research Foundation funded the establishment of a Center of Excellence, Research Center for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA) at Statens Serum Institut in Denmark. Read more about CVIVA. Research at BHP Research from the project has shown that vaccines not only protect against the target disease, but also modifies susceptibility to unrelated infections. These so-called “non-specific effects” have major consequences for child survival. The results indicate that the international community can save millions of children in the world’s poorest countries, if the vaccination programs are optimized to take into account both specific and non-specific effects of vaccines. Read more about our research.