New Cases Of Pertussis Are Reported Whooping Cough Spreads Into Shoshone County

Whooping cough has spread to Shoshone County.

Panhandle Health District officials announced Thursday four new cases of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough.

The latest cases include two toddlers, one 20 months old and the other 18 months old, both from Kellogg. The 18-month-old boy attends the Silver Valley High School Day Care Center in Wallace.

The cases are isolated, and have not been linked to each other or any of the cases in Kootenai County, said Jeanne Bock of the health district.

A fourth Ponderosa Elementary School student and a 4-year-old Post Falls boy were the latest cases in Kootenai County.

The total number of cases identified in the pertussis outbreak is 15. The first was a 2-month-old Post Falls boy who died March 28.

Health district nurses have been testing hundreds of children in the past week who have either been in contact with other pertussis victims, or have shown symptoms.

Symptoms include a runny nose, watery eyes, scratchy throat, a cough that progressively worsens and coughs that cause spasms, vomiting or loss of breath.

Bock said testing supplies have been sent to Kellogg, and nursing supervisor Marie Rau will be in the Silver Valley to launch disease investigations there.

As if prompted by North Idaho’s outbreak, Gov. Phil Batt Thursday signed a proclamation declaring Idaho Infant Immunization Week.

“Is this the proclamation day?” Bock asked. “I had forgotten it was today.”

Batt and his wife are Baby Track volunteers, which means they call mothers to remind them to keep their children’s immunizations on track.

Idaho’s immunization rate, 61 percent, is one of the worst in the nation. A recent survey found that most mothers start the immunization program, but don’t complete it.

Health officials believe the lack of immunizations is one reason why whooping cough outbreaks are so common in the state. North Idaho has had the worst outbreaks.

While pertussis immunizations don’t provide 100 percent protection in an outbreak, they do lessen the effects of the disease, health officials said.

, DataTimes