Henrieta Hudečková, Elena Nováková, Mária Avdičová
The vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae B began to be performed with a polysaccharide vaccine some 25 years ago. Ten years later a conjugated vaccine was prepared containing a capsular polysaccharide. The value of the conjugated vaccine lies in the fact that it is determined to vaccinate children to 2 years of age who are not able to form antigens against the polysaccharide vaccine. Infants are endangered by invasive Haemophilus diseases such as meningitis, epiglottis, pneumonia, sepsis, arthritis, osteomyelitis and cellulitis. We need to pay a close attention to all serious Haemophilus diseases. Before the vaccination program started the sickness rate of Haemophilus meningitis among children of 0 - 4 years in Slovakia was about 6.3/100 000. The vaccination is very successful in countries where introduced but its present rate in the world does influence very little the global burden of the disease. Despite that the occurrence of Haemophilus invasive diseases decreased significantly in those countries where vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae B was performed.