: 

(June 1996) WASHINGTON — A government-sponsored study of two measles vaccines, begun in 1989 during a major U.S. epidemic and conducted on nearly 1,500 minority infants in Los Angeles, failed to disclose to parents that one of the vaccines was experimental, federal health officials said Sunday. The trial involved children in communities hardest hit by the disease, including East and West Los Angeles and Inglewood. The majority of the children were African American and Latino.

(Supposedly) None of the Los Angeles children, most of whom are now 5, was injured by the unlicensed vaccine, the CDC said. However, similar clinical trials conducted in Africa and Haiti with the vaccine raised questions about its relationship to an increased death rate among female infants who received the more potent of two dosages being studied. Those (African and Haitian)  children died within two years after the vaccination. In light of the questions, the Los Angeles study was halted in 1991.  Read more…