Below are charts showing patients notified to NSW Health with a particular communicable disease. The first graph shows the number of notifications by year from 1991 to 2015. The second graph shows the age and gender of patients notified in the last year. What is the disease?
Notifications of in NSW residents by year, 1991 to 2015
Answer
The disease is caused by an infection that was once the most frequent cause of meningitis in children under 5 years of age. It also caused epiglottitis. A very effective vaccine was introduced in the early 1990, leading to a sharp decline in cases. Now children are universally vaccinated at 2, 4, 6 and 12 months of age. In the 12 months to 29 June 2016, only 7 cases were notified in NSW, of whom only 3 were under 5 years of age. The disease caused by infection with Haemophilus influenzae Type b, or Hib. For more information, see Haemophilus Influenzae Type b (Hib) Disease
