The loss of life during last year's drought in Ethiopia was attributed to humans wasting from famine and the effects of chronic communicable diseases according to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Save the Children, and UNICEF. The study, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, noted that the humanitarian efforts to aid the Ethiopians fell remarkably short of the mark. The report established that the emergency response of the agency was not only inadequate and too slow, but the distribution of aid was not broad enough, nor was an aggressive enough measles vaccine campaign put into effect in Gode to stop the tide of disease that ultimately killed many people. World Food Program officials defended the agency's response to Ethiopia by saying that they did the best they could to avert a significantly worse disaster and noted that the death statistics are markedly reduced from two decades ago.