School district warns of pertussis, one case confirmed so far

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, April 10, 2018

The Vashon school district sent an alert last week to families regarding suspected cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, a contagious illness that can pose serious risks to pregnant women, care workers and infants.

One case of pertussis in the distict has been confirmed, with several others dependent on lab work to verify them.

Sarah Day, school district nurse, advised that all parents of children exhibiting symptoms should seek help from their primary care doctor, and that those who are not sick should take precautions.

“I’m a big proponent of hand washing as opposed to hand sanitizer, and not just for pertussis but for influenza or norovirus, which we’ve been dealing with also recently,” she said, adding that the district is following protocols from Public Health – Seattle-King County.

The main characteristic of pertussis is a severe, deep cough that stays for a long duration. At early stages, those who are affected experience cold-like symptoms, gradually worsening. In young children, such as toddlers and infants, when they inhale their breath makes a distressing “whooping” sound, according to literature from public health officials.

“By far and away, people who aren’t vaccinated are much more likely to be infected and much more likely to be contagious. That’s what I would really like to get across to people,” said Day. “People say, ‘Oh, you can get it even though you’ve been vaccinated, so it isn’t good.’ That’s a basic misunderstanding of epidemiology and numbers.”

Pertussis is a bacterial infection, and Day says that most people won’t become infected by contact with objects or surfaces. She said that while her office has modeled the practice of good hygiene for students in her care, inevitably kids get sick.

“I’ve been doing a lot of teaching about hand hygiene and cough hygiene — watching kids washing hands, doing lots of screening of kids and triaging. Not everybody who has a cough needs to go get tested,” she said, emphasizing that excessive worry is unnecessary. Regardless, she noted, as the risk to safety of newborns and infants is great, every effort should be made to keep the spread of whooping cough in check.

“A cough of any duration in a person who has been in close contact with pertussis should get screened,” she said. “Go get screened if you’ve got a really nasty cough and you’re whooping, you’re vomiting, you’re gagging; You should go get screened. If you have any persistent cough and you don’t know why you’re coughing for more than seven days, you should get screened. Those are the people who should get screened regardless of vaccination.”

— Paul Rowley