Five more cases added to whooping-cough total
Two adults and three school-aged children were among Wednesday’s batch of five new lab-confirmed cases of pertussis (whooping cough).
They raise the Flathead City-County Health Department’s total to 30 cases. Additional tests results are pending.
The two new cases bring the adult total to four confirmed by lab testing. An additional adult was diagnosed by symptoms as a member of a household with a lab-confirmed student case.
Some of the newer cases were the first detected at Helena Flats, Smith Valley and Petersen schools. Lab results received in the past week identified students at Kalispell and Evergreen middle schools, Glacier High School and Trinity Lutheran, Ruder, Glacier Gateway and Swan River schools.
One student has tested positive at Bigfork Elementary/Middle School but did not have any symptoms such as coughing and sneezing. As a result, health department staffers were not concerned about pertussis spreading from contact with the middle-school age student who has now started antibiotics.
With the media coverage of the pertussis problem, the health department has seen a pronounced increase in people seeking immunizations, according to Jody White, director of Community Health Services.
“We’ve been doing three times as many immunizations as we usually see this time of year,” she said.
White said the department usually sees from 20 to 25 people a day in the spring. In the last week, the numbers have averaged 60 due to increased demand for the combination tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap) now available for adolescents and adults.
Approved in 2005, the Tdap immunization is recommended as an alternative to the tetanus-diphtheria booster required by Montana law for students entering middle school. People need a booster every 10 years to maintain immunity.
“We really want to emphasize that anyone who has an infant or is expecting an infant needs to get a Tdap,” White said.
She said that both Kalispell Regional Medical Center and North Valley Hospital offer a Tdap immunization to new mothers to protect the infant. New fathers and others near the child need the vaccine to protect the baby who can’t start the pertussis series until the age of two months.
Health officials stress that undiagnosed adults represent the most common source of pertussis transmission. White said that medical providers may miss the pertussis diagnosis because early symptoms mimic a common cold.
The health department offers immunizations Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. and on Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information, call 751-8110.
Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.