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What is Hib disease?--Greg Beattie

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What is Hib disease?--Greg Beattie

http://www.vaccination.org.uk/v/beattie.html

What is Hib disease?--Greg Beattie

From: Greg Beattie <g.beattie@...>

Is it meningitis? No. Is it epiglottitis? No. Is it septicemia, or

pneumonia, or cellulitis, arthritis, middle ear infection,

osteomyelitis, conjunctivitis, or respiratory infections? Well, no.

But sometimes it presents as these diseases.

Then what is it? And what does the vaccine aim to protect our

children from? Hib is not a disease. It's a type of bacteria -

Haemophilus influenzae type b. The term Hib disease applies to any

disease where Hib is found in laboratory tests. It can be any of a

great variety of diseases including those mentioned above. But that

doesn't mean that all cases of meningitis, or epiglottitis, or middle

ear infection etc, are Hib disease. Only some of them. Only when a

specimen is sent to a laboratory and Hib is found in it. If some

other bacteria are found the disease is given a different name. If no

bacteria are found it gets another name again.

So, Hib disease is not like measles, or whooping cough, or polio, or

any of the other diseases we vaccinate for, because it is not defined

by symptoms. Hib disease can basically be any disease with any

symptoms. Whereas whooping cough, measles etc. have traditionally

been defined by the symptoms they present, Hib disease is defined

entirely by laboratory tests. There is no clinical definition for it.

You may be asking, what does that matter? It matters when we

introduce a vaccine for it, because we must be able to see how well

the vaccine is working - i.e., how much disease it's preventing.

Measles vaccine was introduced to combat the illness we call measles

(fever, skin rash etc), and its associated complications and deaths.

Whooping cough vaccine was introduced to combat a different illness,

with a different set of symptoms. Rubella vaccine was introduced to

combat birth defects. Polio vaccine, to prevent paralysis.

What is Hib vaccine supposed to prevent? Which illness was chosen for

monitoring to see if the vaccine was beneficial? The truth is, none.

No illness is being monitored. Basically, we don't know if Hib

vaccination is reducing illness at all. The only thing being

monitored is the frequency of Hib bacteria found in sick children.

There are fewer laboratory tests detecting Hib nowadays so the

vaccine is considered to be effective. The primary motive for

introducing the vaccine was to combat what are known as invasive

bacterial infections. But there is no evidence this has been

achieved. In fact, it has not even been looked at.

There are three major types of invasive bacterial infections - Hib,

pneumococcal, and meningococcal. Interestingly, the decrease in

invasive Hib infections appears to have been accompanied by an

increase in the other two. There appears to be no evidence of a

decrease in invasive bacterial disease overall. In Australia, the

notifications of meningococcal disease in 1995 were the highest since

1979, the year the health department started counting them again.106

More recently, the Sydney Morning Herald (April 24, 1997) warned that

the rise was so significant that doctors have been advised to shift

their policy, and administer broad spectrum antibiotics in the event

of suspected cases. The article reported: About 400 cases and 40

deaths are reported in Australia each year, and the incidence has

been rising gradually in many developed countries, although experts

are not sure why. The number of cases in NSW jumped from 18 in 1988

to 154 in 1993. This rise occurred in parallel with the fall in Hib

disease, so what savings in illness have there been? A research team

in Finland reported an increase in invasive pneumococcal disease

since 1993, suggesting its relationship to the disappearance of Hib

disease as follows:107

" ...our results suggest that following the disappearance of invasive

Hib disease in children bacteraemic pneumococcal infections have

increased. A similar, although less striking increase has been

reported in Philadelphia... It is tempting to speculate that the

increase in invasive pneumococcal infections is causally related to

the disappearance of Hib disease. "

A follow up report108 mentioned an outbreak of invasive pneumococcal

disease in Iceland which, " ... also arose in the context of Hib

elimination by a vaccine programme, and so provides another possible

example of upsurge in pneumococcal disease after Hib control. "

The World Health Organisation reports109 that cases of meningococcal

meningitis (serogroup B) have increased markedly in North America in

recent years. So, there seems to be no demonstrated savings in

illness in children. On top of all this there seems to be an

association between DPT vaccination and invasive Hib disease. Dr

Viera Scheibner comments on the reported 399% increase in Hib disease

since the early 1940s and asks,110 " Why have developed countries

experienced such an increase of invasive infections in the last 40

years?... The best demonstrable common factor in this period is a

documented push for mass vaccination. "

In summary, Hib vaccination was introduced to prevent the diseases

mentioned earlier (meningitis etc). But its success is not measured

by how much disease it prevents. It is only measured by how much Hib

bacteria are found in laboratory tests. It was primarily introduced

to combat meningitis, but we are yet to see any reports of a

reduction in meningitis. Haemophilus influenzae is a group of

bacteria regarded as normal inhabitants of the upper respiratory

tract. They are considered 'typable' if they contain a polysaccharide capsule.

There are six 'typable' varieties named 'a' through to 'f'. The 'b'

type (Hib) is considered to be one of the causes of the diseases

mentioned earlier (meningitis etc). It is, however, also found in up

to 5% of normal healthy children. The question is, has disease itself

been reduced? Are meningitis, arthritis etc still occurring at the

same rate as before, but with different organisms found in

association? We are yet to see a report of reduced disease due to Hib

vaccination. Actually, this raises a broader question in relation to

vaccination in general. Shouldn't vaccination be measured by its

success in reducing disease in the community and its success in

promoting wellness? Shouldn't we be looking at the big picture?

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm Vaccine Dangers &

Childhood Disease & Homeopathy Email classes start April 18

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