Resurgence of rare disease leads to warning: Vaccinate
By RICHARD MERYHEW, Star Tribune
January 24, 2009
An unexpected resurgence of a rare but dangerous childhood illness has prompted Minnesota health officials to issue a public warning for parents to make sure their children are fully vaccinated. Five cases of the infectious children's bacterial disease known as HiB, or Haemophilus influenza type B, were reported in Minnesota in 2008, the most since a vaccine was introduced in the early 1990s, state health officials said Friday.
One of the five children who got sick died, becoming the first HiB fatality in Minnesota since 1991. That child, and two others, had not been vaccinated, health officials said.
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HiB, which is different from the more common viral influenza, is an invasive bacteria that can infect joints, bones and the bloodstream, leading to meningitis, pneumonia and death. But it's a disease that had been nearly wiped out across the United States after a vaccine that is given to babies in the first months of life was introduced in the early 1990s.
No more than one or two cases had been reported annually in young children in Minnesota since then, said Kris Ehresmann, immunizations program manager for the Minnesota Department of Health. Ehresmann said the number of cases reported in Minnesota last year may also have jumped in part because of a shortage in the supply of the vaccine dating back to November 2007.
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