Haemophilus influenzae Type B, or Hib, is a bacterial infection which can affect your child's brain, throat, and lungs, ears, joints, or bones and skin.
Hib infections can happen quickly and can be fatal. Hib is not the same as influenza B or the flu. The flu is caused by a virus, not bacteria.
Symptoms of Hib depend on which part of your child's body is affected, can cause meningitis, which is inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, which can cause fever, headache, a stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and sensitivity to light. It can also cause epiglottitis, resulting in difficulty breathing and swallowing, pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, or infection of the bone or tissue under the skin.
These conditions can lead to hospitalisation and even death. Vaccination is the best way to protect your child from the disease.
Hib vaccines given to children in Australia are combination vaccines that also protect against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, and hepatitis B. This means your child will be protected against more diseases with fewer injections. This also means less pain and stress for your child.
Under the National Immunisation Program, children should receive the free vaccine at two months, four months, six months, and 18 months.
The vaccine provides immunity to Hib to help prevent your child from getting the disease. It contains an inactive and safe form of Hib and trains a child's immune system to recognise and protect against the infection.
Receiving all the childhood doses of the vaccine is around 96% effective in protecting against Hib. Vaccination reduces the chances of getting Hib, and if they do get it, they have less risk of serious illness and hospitalisation.
Your child may experience mild reactions to the vaccine, which usually disappear within a few days. Common reactions include redness, swelling, and soreness at the injection site, a mild fever and tiredness.
Hib is now a rare disease in Australia. Before the vaccine, Hib was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in Australian children.
Vaccination has significantly reduced the prevalence of the disease amongst Australian infants.
Always talk to your health professional if you have any questions about childhood vaccinations.
For more information, visit Sharing Knowledge About Immunisation at skai.org.au/childhood. at skai.org.au/childhood.
In this video, Dr Andrew Gan shares how you can protect your child from Hib with free vaccines available under the National Immunisation Program.