What is Hib?
Despite the name, haemophilus influenzae bacteria don’t cause the flu that circulates every winter. They’re bacteria that can live in noses and throats without necessarily causing trouble. Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is one of several types of the bacteria.
Even people who aren’t sick can spread Hib to others through coughs and sneezes. Sometimes the bacteria cause problems that are relatively easy to treat, like ear infections. They can also cause serious, invasive infections in the lungs, blood stream and joints, as well as the epiglottis like in Johnson’s situation.
It’s Hib’s ability to cause inflammation of the brain and spinal cord — meningitis — that still frightens doctors who remember what it was like treating kids before the vaccine was available. Doctors diagnosed it by doing a lumbar puncture, or spinal tap, to analyze their cerebrospinal fluid.
“When I trained between 1977 and 1980, I would do two to three spinal taps a night,” said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Hib was a leading cause of bacterial meningitis in kids under age 5 at the time. “Now pediatric residents in our hospital don’t do spinal taps, which tells you the power of vaccines.”
The CDC recommends three to four Hib shots (depending on which brand they get) for all kids under age 5. Studies have shown the full series is at least 93% effective in preventing the bacterial illness.
What is Hib?
They’re bacteria that can live in noses and throats without necessarily causing trouble. Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is one of several types of the bacteria.
Even people who aren’t sick can spread Hib to others through coughs and sneezes.
#airborne