Pertussis Outbreak Declines Few New Cases Of Whooping Cough Reported In Recent Days

The Inland Northwest’s whooping cough outbreak has struck nearly 300 people, but the new cases in recent days have been few.

As of Friday, North Idaho had 195 confirmed cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, and Spokane County had 76.

“Now we’re getting a dribble of cases in ones and twos,” said Spokane County epidemiologist Paul Stepak.

Kootenai County only had two new cases this week, according to the Panhandle Health District.

“It looks like it’s pretty well resolved, but it’s not totally over,” said Randi Russo, epidemiology coordinator.

Both health districts noticed that a high number of people who came down with pertussis had been immunized. In North Idaho, the health district does not have final statistics, as most investigations are still on-going, Russo said.

Stepak said that in Spokane County, 86 percent of the patients had at least four doses of the pertussis vaccine. Only one child had no immunizations, he said.

The vaccine does not provide total immunity, and it wears off over time. No booster shots are available for older children, teenagers or adults.

“It’s comforting that at least we’re seeing that the pertussis infection is not reaching into an unvaccinated bunch of people and causing serious disease,” Stepak said.

No one in Spokane County has been hospitalized with pertussis.

In North Idaho, however, a Post Falls infant died from the disease in March and at least five children were hospitalized, Russo said.

The infant died just days before his appointment for his first vaccine. The health district does not yet have statistics for how many other pertussis victims had been immunized.

“I’ve had a lot of cases that were fully immunized,” Russo said. “Nearly all were mild cases. I’m sure there were a few that were not mild. But I do attribute that they were vaccinated as the reason they were mild.”

Idaho has the worst record of immunizations in the nation. But more can be done to prevent pertussis than simply immunizations, Russo said.

“If our community wants to defeat pertussis, there’s a job for everyone to do, from the employers to the schools, to the day-cares, to the doctors and the parents,” she said.

For instance, more employers could provide family sick leave so parents can stay home to care for sick children, thereby containing the highly contagious disease, she said.

Schools should discourage the use of exemption forms for vaccination requirements, and the Legislature should adopt the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions immunization guidelines, she added.

Doctors, too, should more routinely test for pertussis, she said.

“If we had not done this testing, and had not been able to name what was going on, we would have believed that one child died of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and five were hospitalized for some mysterious respiratory illness,” Russo said.

“We know what we can do to prevent it or contain it, though we can’t eradicate it at this point,” she said.

, DataTimes MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: Whooping cough outbreak peaks at nearly 300 cases