A deadly vaccine-preventable disease is making a comeback.
A highly contagious and fast-moving infection that primarily affects children under five years of age is back, as fewer babies get vaccinated year after year.
And doctors who have been trained in the past 40 years have never seen a case before.
Prior to a vaccine being readily available, nearly 20,000 children were affected by the illness, resulting in permanent brain damage and 1,000 deaths per year, according to the CDC.
While a vaccine was eventually created in 1987, the CDC reported last week that the percentage of babies who received a full series of Haemophilus influenzae type b shots fell slightly from 78.8% to 77.6% between 2019 and 2021.
Despite the name, Haemophilus influenzae bacteria, also known as Hib, isn’t the same flu that circulates every winter.
Rather, they’re bacteria that live in the nose and throat, and can be spread by coughs or sneezes, causing several types of infections, both mild and serious.
These can range from mild ear infections and bronchitis, to more severe pneumonia, bloodstream infections, meningitis, epiglottitis (swelling of the throat), cellulitis (skin infection) and infectious arthritis (swelling of a joint).
Since several types of infections can occur, symptoms can depend on the part of the body affected and include a wide range of symptoms such as fever, chills, sweating, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, shortness of breath, vomiting and more.
As more parents make the decision not to vaccinate their kids and states roll back vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, experts warn Hib could be the next breakout preventable disease, especially as doctors are treating more patients.
“I’d never seen a case of Hib for years and years,” Dr. Eehab Kenawy, a pediatrician in Florida, told NBC. “Now I’m hearing about it.”
The decline in vaccinations alongside the rise in cases has doctors adding Hib to potential causes beyond the usual suspects when children come into their waiting rooms with the typical signs of a bacterial infection.
“We have to start thinking about these things as a differential diagnosis in our workup,” Kenawy said. “It puts us in a situation where we may have to do more close observation, possibly more admissions, maybe some unnecessary workup at times. It’s the changing world of medicine.”
As of March 21, the CDC had logged eight cases so far this year: two in Ohio, two in New York and one case each in Kansas, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Three to four Hib shots (depending on which brand they get) are recommended for all kids under age 5 by the agency.
Studies have shown the full series is at least 93% effective in preventing the bacterial illness.
It’s not just Hib vaccines that are on the decline, though, as vaccination rates continue to drop across the nation for several diseases, including measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and polio.
