May 14, 2008 5:11 pm US/Pacific
No New Cases Of Whooping Cough At E. Bay School
EL SOBRANTE (BCN) ―
No new cases of whooping cough have been confirmed since Monday at
the East Bay Waldorf School in El Sobrante where an outbreak of the highly contagious illness was reported last week, but health officials are still monitoring the school.
So far 17 students at the school have been diagnosed with whooping cough, also known as pertussis, but no new cases have been reported since Monday, Contra Costa Health Services spokeswoman Kate Fowlie said Wednesday.
More than half of the sick children were in the school's kindergarten class, according to health officials.
County health officials closed the school Friday, but reopened it Monday to students, faculty and staff members who could prove they were symptom-free and taking antibiotics.
Public health nurses have been at the school screening students and staff members and the health department has alerted doctors and hospitals in the region to the outbreak, warning them to keep patients with the illness isolated.
The school, which is in an unincorporated part of the county, has about 300 students between kindergarten and 12th grade and an unusually high number of children who are not vaccinated against the infection.
The vaccine, which is not mandatory under state law, would have prevented most children at the school from contracting the disease, Dr. Wendel Brunner, the county's health services public health director, said.
Fears that a preservative used in the pertussis vaccine could cause seizures, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorders have prompted many parents to choose not to vaccinate their children, a decision that has reportedly resulted in a rise in whooping cough cases in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that studies show no causal relationship between the rise in children being diagnosed with autism, now estimated to be about one in every 150 children, and vaccination records.
Whooping cough, which gets its name from the characteristic gasping sound of an infant fighting for breath while coughing, is a respiratory tract infection that is spread through the air when someone coughs or sneezes, or by other close contact. The illness can be fatal in infants and can last for months in children and adults.
Other complications of the infection can include vomiting, pneumonia, seizures and brain damage.
People who have symptoms of the illness are urged to get treated and not to attend public events.
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