Whooping cough comes to Kentucky

[Guest guest]

According to this article, ALL six children with whooping cough from this

school, " received proper immunizations. " Interesting, they can't blame the

unvaxed on THIS outbreak!!

Kay in KY

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Whooping cough found in Bullitt

6 Freedom students contract the illness

By Sara Cunningham

scunningham@...

Six Bullitt County students have tested positive for whooping cough, also

known as pertussis, a spokesman for Bullitt County Public Schools said

yesterday.

All of the students are from Freedom Elementary School in Shepherdsville,

said Farris, an attorney for the school board.

The first of the six students tested positive for the disease last week.

Whooping cough is a bacterial illness that affects the respiratory passages.

People with the disease have repeated coughing attacks that are punctuated

by a " whooping " sound when they inhale. Cases are typically diagnosed from

samples taken by nasal swabs.

The students who tested positive for the disease are being treated, Farris

said.

Lesa Bodine, the Bullitt district's health coordinator, said a public health

advisory notice was sent out schoolwide, and additional letters were sent

home with students who may have had closer contact with any of the ill

students.

Renfrow, nurse administrator for the Bullitt County Health

Department, said treatment consists of a five-day course of antibiotics.

The department recommends that anyone who may have had close contact with

the students seek preventative treatment from a doctor.

Besides the six confirmed cases, there are six more test cultures pending,

Renfrow said.

The state requires children to be immunized against the disease as part of

their series of vaccines, Renfrow said. But health professionals are finding

the vaccine can " wane " as children age, she said, and it's not uncommon for

cases of the illness to surface.

" It's very contagious, so it's not unusual to see clusters pop up in schools

like this, " Renfrow said. " This does not mean that people didn't get the

shots they were supposed to. "

All of the ill students' files showed they received proper immunizations,

Bodine said.