LUBBOCK, TEXAS — Utah's state epidemiologist warned in April 2026 that declining vaccination rates could lead to a resurgence of Haemophilus influenzae type b disease. The percentage of babies who received all Hib vaccine doses fell from 78.8% in 2019 to 77.6% in 2021, according to the CDC.

"Hib is something that we might see soon," said Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist of Utah. "It's really tragic to think we're going to have to go back to having emergency rooms filled with little babies who have this highly, highly deadly and dangerous disease."

Before the Hib vaccine was introduced, about 20,000 children in the United States developed severe Hib infections each year, according to the CDC. About 1,000 children died annually from Hib infections, according to the CDC. After the introduction of Hib vaccinations, annual Hib infections dropped to fewer than 50 cases per year, according to the CDC.

As of March 21, 2026, the CDC had logged eight Hib cases so far this year: two in Ohio, two in New York, and one each in Kansas, North Carolina and Tennessee, according to the CDC. The CDC tracks Hib case data, but Hib case counts can lag by a year or more because states do not report cases as quickly as they report flu or measles cases.

According to Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a vaccine safety expert and professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, colleagues at Vanderbilt recently treated two cases of Hib-related meningitis.

A Hib vaccine became available in 1987. The disease can cause severe complications in young children, including meningitis and epiglottitis, which causes the airway to close.