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HIB Vaccine

Posted in Vaccines, tagged , , , , , , , on April 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

What is HIB?

  • HIB ( Haemophilus Influenza Type B) is a bacterium
  • can cause serious illness such as: meningitis, blood infections, bone infections, and pneumonia
  • transmitted like a cold through an infect person’s cough, mucus, or saliva
  • usually remain only in the nose, ears, or throat and only cause some minor cold symptoms
  • serious side effects could be: fever, lethargy, vomiting, and poor appetite
  • diagnosed through spinal tap or blood test
  • if infected, does not give you life long immunity

Dose your child run a risk for contracting HIB?

  • Only 25 reported cases a year (thanks to the HIB vaccine), most in children under the age of 3
  • It is serious. 5% die and 25% will have brain damage of some sort
  • Most parents don’t take their child to the doctor until they have been ill for a while and test results can take up to two days- this is too late if the illness is very advanced

What is in the Vaccine? (There are 2 possible HIB vaccines)

  • Both vaccines contain only certain portions of the disease germ. There is no way to catch the actual infection from this vaccine.
  • ActHIB: sugar, tetanus toxoid complex, saline solution
  • PedVaxHIB: sugar, saline solution, Neisseria protein complex, aluminum (225 micrograms) I will write a post either later today or tomorrow about aluminum in vaccines.

Side Effects

  • Less that 5% of babies may have: fever, fussiness, redness, and swelling
  • serious side effects that have been reported are: Guillain-Barre Syndrome and serious HIB infection (this is extremely rare)

Reasons to Get Vaccine

  • meningitis and blood infections can be very serious
  • continue HIB vaccines keep the virus from growing and the number of people from becoming ill from the HIB
  • safest side effect profile of all vaccines
  • ingredients are very pure compared to other vaccines
  • if you travel outside the country, HIB is more common in other countries

Reasons some people might choose to not give the HIB vaccine to their child

  • HIB disease remains very low (25 cased/year)
  • breastfeed and do not attend day care help reduce the risk of contracting this illness

What did I decide?

I decide to go with the alternate vaccine schedule, which included giving this vaccine. I felt that because this vaccine has a low risk of side effects and a minimum amount of aluminum, that it was safe to give Cooper. He received his first does was when he was 3 months old. He did not have any side effects at all.

More information about the HIB vaccine

Please leave a comment and share with me what you decide to do for your child concerning the HIB vaccine. If you have any other information about the vaccine that I have not shared, please leave a comment! The more we are informed about each vaccine the better choices we can make for our children!

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