Question: “Serious infections caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) are now rare in Canada, aren’t they? So it should be unnecessary to vaccinate my child, right?”
WRONG. Each year for the past five years, at least one serious Hib infection, usually with meningitis, in a child whose parents chose not to vaccinate during infancy has been seen. One of the children died. Such cases are especially tragic now, when only a half-dozen cases per year are being reported by the 11-centre Immunization Monitoring Program ACTive (IMPACT) network. The message for parents is that Hib organisms continue to circulate among children and have lost none of their bite: vaccination is the best defence. It is safe and highly effective. In this lottery, vaccination is the winning ticket.