Hib disease deaths put focus on vaccine shortage

Then, on March 11, she got a report of a 4-year-old city child who had died of meningitis due to invasive Hib disease, which also can cause death through pneumonia and bloodstream infections known as sepsis.

The child's family belongs to a church that eschews modern medicine. The city threatened court action to force vaccination of the child's siblings, she said.

The Medical Examiner's Office, in a review of recent deaths, then determined that a 2-year-old from a community with religious objections to vaccines had died of a related disease Jan. 24.

This is the one suspected Pennsylvania case that has yet to be proven.

Since August, the state Department of Health has confirmed three cases in Lancaster County and one in Perry County. The Chester County case brought the state's total of confirmed cases to six, which a CDC spokesman said yesterday was the most from any state.

To Paul A. Offit, chief of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the Hib outbreak is a sign of what can happen when some parents decide not to vaccinate their children.

Although the risk to each individual in the broader community isn't high, he said, "the question is, when do you reach a tipping point?"