As vaccination rates dwindle, public health experts say rare infectious diseases could resurge — which might be happening with a rare, fatal bacterial disease known as Hib, NBC News reported April 2.
Haemophilus influenzae type B, commonly shortened to Hib, is an infectious disease that is fatal for 3% to 6% of children who contract it, according to the CDC. Before the Hib vaccination series became available in the late 1980s, each year approximately 20,000 children in the U.S. developed a serious Hib infection and 1,000 died.
Currently, the U.S. records fewer than 50 cases per year of Hib disease among young children, according to the CDC. Hib vaccination rates are declining slightly, however — from 78.8% in 2019 to 77.6% in 2021 — and physicians told NBC News they are seeing more cases after years of not seeing a single Hib infection.
As fewer people receive the vaccine series for Hib, increasing prevalence of the disease “is something that we might see soon,” Utah’s state epidemiologist, Leisha Nolen, MD, PhD, told ABC News. “It’s really tragic to think we’re going to have to go back to having emergency rooms filled with little babies who have this highly, highly deadly and dangerous disease.”
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