HIB Does anyone worry about it?

[Aquafina]

I know the vax can cause hib,but is this something you can pick up the vpd at say the mall or supermarket,or hanging out with the family kids that are vaxed and go to day care..Or just going to a family place with lots of kids,toddlers,babies....Is this a treatable vpd beacuse drs,and people make it sound bad bad bad.....its really the only vax I am thinking about but at a year old....I cant make my mind up on this

[alegna]

I never considered getting that vax. Hib is probably in your nose right now. It's everywhere. It's not a danger in healthy breastfed babies.

We weren't vaxed for it and never worried about it and nothing about the disease has changed since then.

-Angela

[LongIsland]

CDC Pink Book chapter on Hib: http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/pink/hib.pdf

[Tanibani]

Considering that I never heard of anyone ever getting it in my entire life (I'm 38) and only heard of it after the vax came out, no I have no fear.

If your baby is formula fed and in day care... yikes... but mine are BF (the youngest is still BF) and never in day care.

[Aquafina]

If your baby is formula fed and in day care... yikes... but mine are BF (the youngest is still BF) and never in day care.

HaHaHa my ds is breastfeed ,never been in daycare just on my sholder like a little monkey 24/7

[wonderwahine]

Originally Posted by Tanibani

Considering that I never heard of anyone ever getting it in my entire life (I'm 38) and only heard of it after the vax came out, no I have no fear.

If your baby is formula fed and in day care... yikes... but mine are BF (the youngest is still BF) and never in day care.

i had HiB as a baby, not sure which strain, as they didnt care back before there was a vax made.

[Mirzam]

I used to before I knew anything about the disease. I vaccinated my eldest (now 16) at 15 months because there was a little boy in a playgroup we went to that was deaf as a result of meningitis. I now know much better, especially as DD was breastfed (weaned at four) didn't attend daycare ,so was not at risk for it. I even went to the bother of having the ped order it from Japan because it wasn't available in Hong Kong at the time. : That was the extent of my fear.

My subsequent children have not been vaccinated for Hib or anything else for that matter.

[stacyann21]

We weren't vaxed for it and never worried about it and nothing about the disease has changed since then.

Yup. You're overly concerned with the disease because there's a vaccine for it. Just don't worry about it. There's lots of things that can make your child sick, kwim?

[jeanine123]

I never really worried about it. I considered it for a bit but then read some more and decided it wasn't worth it.

[laohaire]

Wow, the CDC whitepaper was very helpful. The main points I got out of it were:

- Peak attack rates occur at 6-7 months of age, and virtually all cases involve children younger than 5 years
- Breastfeeding is mentioned as a good way to protect children
- It states "There is evidence that Hib vaccines decrease the rate of carriage of Hib among vaccinated children, thereby decreasing the risk that unvaccinated children will be exposed."
- "In 1998-2000, approximately 44% of children younger than 5 years of age with confirmed invasive Hib disease were younger than 6 months of age and too young to have completed a three-dose primary vaccination series."
- "Thirty-two percent of children aged 6-59 months with confirmed type B disease had received three of more doses of Hib vaccine, including 22 who had received a booster dose 14 or more days before the onset of their illness. The cause of Hib vaccine failure in these children is not known."
- Risk factors for Hib include household crowding, child care attendence, low socioeconomic status, etc.

My goodness, this is published from the CDC and it practically recommends against the vaccine. Of course I'm leaving out the parts that describe the severity of the infections, but it seems that the vaccine is not considered to be a very effective response - though at the same time, the rates have gone down considerably during this era.

Very interesting. I guess that's another one off the list (I'm researching them all individually and not making any blanket decisions).

[Aquafina]

household crowding

What would you concider household crowding is,I live with my parents,since dh goes out of town 24/7 and my ds 1 and the babe,with the zoo of animals..

[wonderwahine]

Originally Posted by Aquafina

What would you concider household crowding is,I live with my parents,since dh goes out of town 24/7 and my ds 1 and the babe,with the zoo of animals..

i think the official numbers is more than 7 people in a 3 bedroom house. there are definate numbers because housing complexes have to follow the guidelines for how many people they can lease a place to by size.

[Natsuki]

Since my DS is exclusively breastfed and does not go to day care I did not get that vax.

If he were formula fed I would consider it. If he were formula fed in daycare i would probably get it.

FYI - you cannot acquire Hib from the vax itself as it is not live virus.

**Also, I read an article connecting the Hib protein in the vax with potential peanut allergies and with our family's health history that seemed like a risk I was not willing to take: http://www.vran.org/vaccines/anaphylaxis/ana-vac.htm

[wonderwahine]

no, but a symptom of Hib is encephalistis, and a side effect of the vax is that also...

[Spy]

Originally Posted by alegna

Hib is probably in your nose right now.

:

And if there were no vaccine on the market, you wouldn't even know there is such a disease, let alone be concerned about it

[Plummeting]

Originally Posted by Aquafina

What would you concider household crowding is,I live with my parents,since dh goes out of town 24/7 and my ds 1 and the babe,with the zoo of animals..

I wouldn't worry about it. The reason it's a symptom almost certainly has more to do with poverty than with the number of people in the house. Poor people usually live in crowded conditions and poor people are more susceptible to ALL diseases.

[Plummeting]

Originally Posted by Natsuki

Since FYI - you cannot acquire Hib from the vax itself as it is not live virus.

No, but some studies have shown that invasive Hib disease is more likely to occur within 2 weeks of receiving a Hib vaccine than any other time. So the vaccine can't "give" you Hib, but it can probably somehow screw up your body enough to let the Hib that's already there get out of control and make you sick.

[suschi]

I never even heard of Hib until a vaccine was available. A VIS hadn't even been distributed yet so our ped's office had a hand typed sheet, which stated this vaccine was recommended for children in daycare.

A stay at home breastfed baby was not considered at high risk, yet they gave this shot to my infant anyway.

Why is it we don't even hear about some of these "deadly" diseases until there is a vaccine to sell?

My youngest, 4 yrs old, is not vaccinated, nor is my 2 yr old grandson.

[sunnmama]

Originally Posted by alegna

We weren't vaxed for it and never worried about it and nothing about the disease has changed since then.

-Angela

I have been doing a lot of reading, and can't remember the source at the moment (books recommended here, one pro-vax book, and some websites). But *somewhere* I read that the incidence of HIB was on the rise before the vaccine was introduced. And this rise was possibly due to "super-bugs" that had become antibiotic resistant.

Anyone know anthing about that? True/untrue? The possible antibiotic-resistancy was making me fear this disease more......

[LongIsland]

Originally Posted by sunnmama

I have been doing a lot of reading, and can't remember the source at the moment (books recommended here, one pro-vax book, and some websites). But *somewhere* I read that the incidence of HIB was on the rise before the vaccine was introduced. And this rise was possibly due to "super-bugs" that had become antibiotic resistant.

Anyone know anthing about that? True/untrue? The possible antibiotic-resistancy was making me fear this disease more......

Actually, the incidence of invasive Hib "declined dramatically" before the introduction of the first Hib conjugate vaccine according to the CDC Pink Book chapter on Hib. Additionally, the first conjugate vaccines were given to toddlers, not infants.

ETA link: http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/pink/hib.pdf