Want Proof That Hib Vaccines Work?

Anti-vaccine influencers often claim that vaccines don’t work and haven’t saved millions of lives, despite all evidence to the contrary. How about today we show you evidence about how well Hib vaccines work?

Want Proof That Hib Vaccines Work?

Hib vaccines were first introduced in 1985 to help control meningitis and other invasive Hib infections, like epiglottitis, pneumonia, and bacteremia.

Are anti-vaccine influencers going to credit better sanitation and nutrition for the drop in cases and deaths from invasive Hib in the late 1980s???

And they didn’t just work well - they worked great!

“Before effective vaccines were available, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis among children in the United States.”

Progress Toward Elimination of Haemophilus influenzae Type b Disease Among Infants and Children — United States, 1993–1994

Invasive Hib didn’t disappear, but it did become a disease of those who were unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

In fact, the average pediatrician under age 60 has likely never treated a child with epiglottitis!

“Both national and laboratory-based surveillance findings indicate that Hi disease now occurs primarily among undervaccinated children and among infants too young to have completed the primary series of vaccination.”

Progress Toward Elimination of Haemophilus influenzae Type b Disease Among Infants and Children — United States, 1993–1994

Hib is a terrible disease that caused hundreds of deaths each year in the pre-vaccine era!

On the left are vocal cords and a normal epiglottis (A) - the cartilage flap that folds over our windpipe or trachea when we eat or drink something and opens when we breathe. On the right (B) is the classic cherry red epiglottis that you see in a child with epiglottitis. And on top in the ‘thumb sign’ you might see on an xray - that’s the swollen epiglottis!

Diseases and deaths that were prevented almost overnight as more and more children were vaccinated and protected.

Diseases and deaths that can easily come back if more parents chose to skip or delay the Hib vaccine.

“The burden of invasive Hib disease is limited currently to a small number of countries where Hib immunization is either not freely available or has been incorporated only recently into the NIP.”

Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Infections after 3 Decades of Hib Protein Conjugate Vaccine Use

But what about other capsulated serotypes of H. influenzae?

Haven’t they increased since the introduction of the Hib vaccines?

Yes, some have, but not to the levels of Hib, and strain replacement is not a good reason to think that Hib vaccines aren’t a success!

And believe me, no one wants Hib infections to return!

More on Evidence that Vaccines Work

• The Incredible Hulk’s Son Died of a Vaccine Preventable Disease ← Hib

• Charts That Show How Well Vaccines Work

• What Happened to Measles Encephalitis in the United States?

• More Proof That RSV Vaccines Are Working

• How Did Scarlet Fever Go Away Without a Vaccine?

• Progress Toward Elimination of Haemophilus influenzae type b Disease Among Infants and Children -- United States, 1987-1993

• Progress Toward Elimination of Haemophilus influenzae Type b Disease Among Infants and Children — United States, 1993–1994

• Hib Vaccines: Their Impact on Haemophilus influenzae Type b Disease

• Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) | History of Vaccines

• Invasive Haemophilus influenzae Infections after 3 Decades of Hib Protein Conjugate Vaccine Use

• Hib Initiative: a GAVI success story