Accelerating Haemophllus influenzae type b vaccine introduction in the world's poorest countries: a dream is conning true

摘要

In 2007, while performing a site visit to a project funded by the Hib Initiative in a district hospital in rural Tanzania, we saw two girls with Haemo-philus influenzae type b (Hib) meningitis: a 4 month old who was just admitted, and a 7 year old in a coma. Laboratory results showed that both Hib isolates were resistant to amoxicillin and chloramphenicol. The 7 year old had been switched from amoxicillin, the first-line treatment in Tanzania, to ceftriaxone, an expensive but more effective drug. The 4 month old was started on a course of amoxicillin, but died before the laboratory results came back and before her treatment could be changed. Neither child was vaccinated against Hib as the Hib vaccine is not part of the expanded program of immunization in Tanzania. Sadly, these children represent two of the approximately 400,000 children that die every year from this preventable disease [l].