BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A cluster of pertussis cases linked to a Catholic school in Mount Lookout has prompted the Cincinnati Health Department to send warning letters to more than 1,400 families whose children may have come into contact with sick students.
Pertussis -- also known as whooping cough -- is a highly contagious, bacteria-borne disease that often causes a severe, whooping-like cough in children. In the latest cluster, the health department has confirmed nine cases -- eight were students at Cardinal Pacelli school and one was a sibling of a student. All nine are recovering.
|
ABOUT PERTUSSIS
|
|
Before a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s, whooping cough was America's deadliest childhood disease, with 200,000 cases and thousands of infant deaths a year.
Symptoms of the bacteria-borne disease usually begin within five to 10 days after infection. The illness can last three weeks or longer.
Early pertussis signs include runny nose, watery eyes and other cold or flu-like symptoms that last longer than a week. More advanced signs include prolonged, violent bouts of coughing.
The disease's nickname comes from the whooping sound many children make when trying to catch their breath between coughs.
Cincinnati Health Department officials ask parents to contact doctors if they see symptoms. During this holiday weekend, children with signs of the illness should be kept away from large gatherings, said Dr. Judith Daniels, medical director at the health department.
|
The first case was detected June 1, just four days before the last day of school. Confirmations of other cases have popped up every few days since, with the most recent two cases confirmed Wednesday, said Dr. Judith Daniels, medical director at the Cincinnati Health Department.
The health department describes the situation as a "cluster" of cases occurring during an otherwise moderate year for whooping cough. "I would not call it an outbreak, but we are keeping a close watch," Dr. Daniels said.
The department has already begun urging people in close contact with whooping cough victims to seek preventive antibiotic treatment. After tracing the many activities of the nine sick kids, the health department sent letters to families of children attending two recent football camps, a basketball camp, and members of the Mount Lookout Swim Club, where some of the sick children were members of the swim team.
The pool water was tested and is safe, Dr. Daniels said. But because the swim team spends so much time together, 63 team members were prescribed antibiotics as a precaution.
In fact, the precautionary prescriptions of erythromycin have been so concentrated among the Mount Lookout, Hyde Park and Oakley neighborhoods that the Walgreen store in Hyde Park ran out of the medication. However, the antibiotic remains available in many other Greater Cincinnati stores.
Pertussis tends to run in three-year cycles, said Dr. Beverly Connelly, infection control officer at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
In 1993, Greater Cincinnati suffered the nation's worst single-city outbreak that year, when more than 350 cases were reported. Another peak hit in 1996, with more than 100 local cases.
Halfway through this year, 20 cases have been reported in Hamilton County. An eight-county report by Children's Hospital notes 25 confirmed cases and another 12 suspected cases.
