The Panhandle Health District warns that whooping cough has spread to 16 children in Benewah County in a slow-moving outbreak that has landed one child in the hospital.  Children diagnosed with whooping cough—pertussis—range in age from 3 months to 17 years and in locations from Fernwood to Santa to St. Maries. The hospitalized child has returned home and is improving.

“We suspect exposures are occurring at a couple of churches and daycares,” said Jeff Lee, PHD  epidemiologist.  “Pertussis is highly contagious in group settings—within families, work settings.”

Most of the children with pertussis were not immunized. The pertussis vaccine protects people from getting the disease, but it doesn’t work completely for all people. Still, it has been shown to prevent serious symptoms in people who have been vaccinated.  Read the press release here.

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