Infections Caused by Haemophilus influenzae Type b

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Abstract
Infections caused byHaemophilus influenzaetype b (Hib) have been a deadly scourge of children for many years. Until recently Hib was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in the United States (most of which occurred in children less than 2 years of age).1Haemophilus influenzaetype b has been responsible for death or severe permanent neurologic damage in tens of thousands of children in the United States and throughout the world.1,2The morbidity and mortality of Hib infections in the United States in the early 1980s were comparable to the morbidity and mortality of poliomyelitis during the great polio epidemics of the 1950s.3Three articles in the current issue ofThe Journalreport that in recent years the incidence of Hib infections in the United States has fallen by 85% to 90%.4-6Is this occurring throughout the See also pp 221, 227, and 246.