Can We Eliminate Haemophilus Influenzae Type B?
a mission to eliminate it from the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this goal has not been achieved yet. Public health experts think that after polio is eliminated, the next target could be measles. Meanwhile, routine immunization has put under control many devastating diseases of the past. One example is the disease caused by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), which infects the outer lining of the brain causing meningitis. Invasive Hib disease is most common among children under five years of age and can lead to pneumonia, severe throat swelling and infections of blood, bones, joints, and the covering of the heart. Even with antibiotic treatment, about 5% of children (500 out of every 10,000) with Hib meningitis die. Hib kills 400,000 children in the world every year. The first Hib vaccine was licensed in 1985. Before then, there were 20,000 cases of Hib disease every year in the United States (including 12,000 cases of meningitis and 7,500 cases of pneumonia). The nu
