One case of whooping cough has been confirmed in neighboring Anderson County with another two suspected.
In Johnson County, more than 175 cases have been reported, up from 11 in 2011.
Statewide, 46 cases have been confirmed while the results on many others are pending.
Those counties affected to date are Ford, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Nemaha, Riley and Sedgwick.
PERTUSSIS is a dangerous — and highly contagious — disease, most particularly for infants.
A series of shots keep children protected from the infection, so named because it infiltrates the respiratory tract, producing a hacking cough that frequently sounds like “whoop.”
Infants who have not completed the full course of vaccinations are most susceptible. Teenagers and adults are frequently the culprits. What may seem like a stubborn cough could in fact be pertussis because childhood immunizations have worn off.
That’s why any adult or teen who is routinely around young children should get a “booster” shot, referred to as Tdap, which stands for tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis.
Tdap is a one-time shot developed in 2005 that protects adults and teens from contracting — and spreading — whooping cough.
If you’re a doting grandparent, don’t think twice about getting the vaccine.
IT’S UNCONSCIONABLE for parents to prevent their children from being protected against diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis.
These are diseases that generations ago killed swaths of children. Before the pertussis vaccine was developed in the 1940s, more than 200,000 cases of the disease were reported annually. Now, the rates have dropped by more than 80 percent in developed countries, though pertussis remains a major health problem among children in developing countries, with an estimated 195,000 annual deaths resulting.
Unfortunately, some parents “opt out” of the vaccinations required by Kansas public schools by declaring the regimen goes against their “religion.”
Difficult to discern, the waiver simply requires a legal guardian’s signature.
DeeDee Martin, a registered nurse with the local public health department, said such outsiders are a rarity in Allen County.
Nationwide, however, the rates of pertussis have skyrocketed from 2001 to 2010, when 27,550 cases were reported.
