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Hib infection in children makes a deadly return - 02-16-2009
Back to All News Items"Some parents wonder if these diseases are a risk," says Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "With something like Hib, many people have never heard of it because we haven't seen it. "But it was a killer disease, and we want parents to know it is very dangerous."
The vaccine for Hib, which became routinely used in 1991, "was like an overnight miracle," says Kristen Ehresmann, immunization program manager for the Minnesota Department of Health. Rates of severe Hib disease dropped 99%, to less than one in 100,000 children, nationally, the CDC says. "For anyone who has experienced that, to see this increase in the disease is really quite distressing," she says.
Read the full article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-02-15-hib-kids_N.htm