Haemophilus Influenza type b
...include fever, weakness, vomiting, and a stiff neck. If left untreated, meningitis can cause brain damage, mental retardation, deafness, epilepsy, or death. Before vaccinations became routine, Hib was the most common cause of childhood meningitis, killing 600 American children per year. Hib can also cause infection of the lungs, blood, joints, bones, throat, and pericardium (the covering of the heart). These symptoms depend on the part of the body which is infected. Hib is diagnosed using a blood culture, or more often, a culture of the spinal cord. To treat Hib, antibiotics should start immediately to stop brain damage or death. To prevent Hib infection, there are three types of vaccines and they are all equally effective. All children under age five should be vaccinated. The shot should be injected at two months of age and then four months of age. After this series of shots, a booster shot is required between twelve and fifteen months. Hib is extremely contagious. You can contract the disease from being exposed to an infected person’s cough, sneeze, or even their breath if they are speaking too close to you. You do not have to have the symptoms to spread the bacterium. The first vaccine was licensed by scientists in 1985. Then the scientists reformulated it so it would work for children under the age of eighteen months. The FDA approved this reformulated version of the vaccine and it entered mainstream use in 1987. According to Center for Disease Control, rates of disease among children under five have declined by more than ninety-five percent in the U.S. since 1990, when the more effective vaccines for infants and children were licensed. Between 1980 and 1990, Hib s...