Guest guest Posted September 19, 1998 Report Share Posted September 19, 1998 PERTUSSIS - USA (UTAH) > ********************** > A ProMED-mail post > <http://www.healthnet.org/programs/promed.html > > [see also: > Pertussis - USA (Idaho) 971010235214] > > Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1998 18:25:00 -0400 > Source: Deseret News > Via: A. on <grobertson@... > > ************ > 50 cases confirmed; hundreds of people showing symptoms > Last updated 09/11/1998, 11:43 a.m. MT > ************ > > An outbreak of whooping cough has hit Utah, health department officials > said Friday. Fifty cases have been confirmed and hundreds more people are > showing symptoms of the infectious respiratory disease pertussis, commonly > known as whooping cough. > > , deputy director of the Utah Department of Health, said 50 > Utah people have been diagnosed with whooping cough since January. In the > last few months, seven new cases have been reported in four different parts > of the state, leading health officials to call attention to the matter. > " When you get a few people exposed, those people can expose other people. > It's kind of this geometric expansion, " said. " Pretty soon you > have enough exposure that the second wave of cases starts to occur. " > > Ages of those diagnosed range from a newborn to age 55 and they've occurred > in Utah, Salt Lake, Summit and Washington counties in the past month. In > Salt Lake County alone, 29 cases of whooping cough have been confirmed and > 277 other people have been exposed, said Vedder, executive director > of the Salt Lake City-County Health Department. " We're very concerned, " > Vedder said Friday. " Adults are all susceptible to pertussis and are > actually going to be spreading the disease to the children. " > > Children under 2 who are not immunized are most vulnerable to the disease, > which can cause pneumonia, brain damage and death. In the past six weeks, > two infants have been hospitalized at Primary Children's Medical Center > with whooping cough, said. Utah ties with Idaho for last place > among states for pre-school immunizations among 2-year-olds. Whooping cough > in children can be prevented by a series of shots given at 2, 4, 6 and 15 > months and again when the child enters school. Because the vaccinations > wear off after five to 10 years, adults and adolescents immunized as > infants can catch whooping cough and pass it along to others. Adult > symptoms are usually less severe. The contagious stage of the disease is > shortened by treatment with antibiotics, said. > > Health officials are urging Utahns with a persistent cough to see a > physician immediately. Other symptoms include runny nose, sneezing and a > low-grade fever. There may also be vomiting and the symptoms last four to > six weeks. " We really want to identify those people, so we can get them on > antibiotics and keep them from spreading it around, " said. > Whooping cough has been a problem throughout the Intermountain West, Vedder > said, though health officials don't know why. Idaho has been especially > hard hit. Vedder said the number of recent cases led her, and > other health department directors to meet this week and decide to call the > situation an outbreak and start informing the public. " Anybody with a > persistent cough or anybody whose children have persistent coughs and are > not immunized needs to immediately call their physician, " Vedder said. > > Cases of pertussis in 1998 include: Salt Lake County, 29; Utah County, 12; > Summit, , Tooele and the Southwest Utah Public Health Department > (Beaver, Iron, Garfield, Washington and Kane counties), 2 each; > Weber/ area, 1. > > [Written by: Cala Byram] > > - -- > ProMED-mail > e-mail: promed@... > ......................................es > - -- > Send all items for posting to: promed@... (NOT to an > individual moderator). If you do not give your full name and affiliation, > it may not be posted. Send commands to subscribe/unsubscribe, get archives, > help, etc. to: majordomo@.... For assistance from a human > being, send mail to: owner-promed@... > > > PERTUSSIS - USA (UTAH) (02) > *************************** > A ProMED-mail post > <http://www.healthnet.org/programs/promed.html > > [see also: > Pertussis - USA (Utah) 980913101922] > > Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 16:30:25 -0700 > From: DeBolt, Chas <Chas.DeBolt@... > > I am writing to remark about the following language in the 9/13/98 > Pertussis USA (Utah) posting [980913101922 cited above]: > > " Whooping cough in children can be prevented by a series of shots given at > 2, 4, 6 and 15 months and again when the child enters school. Because the > vaccinations wear off after five to 10 years, adults and adolescents > immunized as infants can catch whooping cough and pass it along to others. " > > This is what many health care providers believe, and therefore, they think > immunized children cannot get whooping cough. I sometimes feel like a > snake-oil salesman trying to convince the providers to take the situation > seriously if the kids have had the shots! Even after I have phoned ahead > to let the provider know that a child has had face to face exposure with a > culture-confirmed case in the past 21 days, they may check the immunization > record and simply tell the parent not to worry (because immunizations are > current). > > We must be careful about the language we use. Changing the health care > community's understanding of whooping cough in a highly immunized > population is an arduous task for those of us who deal with it daily. I > sometimes find the lay public more open to the current epidemiology of > pertussis than some doctors and nurses. This immunization is not like > measles vaccine, where 95% of those receiving the vaccine develop measles > IgG and are then immune to measles. > > As an example, prophylactic antibiotics for an asymptomatic immunized child > with a known exposure can be important. Pertussis in an immunized child > can present as a few days of cold symptoms with a slight night cough. But > they may still be contagious. The immunized child could expose an infant > too young for immunization. And that infant could die from pertussis > disease. > > - -- > Chas De Bolt, RN MPH > Vaccine-preventable diseases epidemiologist > Prevention division > Seattle King County Department of Public Health > 999 Third Avenue, Suite 900 > Seattle, Washington 98104-4099 > Phone: (206) 296-4774 > Fax: (206) 296-4803 > e-mail: chas.debolt@... > ......................................es > - -- > Send all items for posting to: promed@... (NOT to an > individual moderator). If you do not give your full name and affiliation, > it may not be posted. Send commands to subscribe/unsubscribe, get archives, > help, etc. to: majordomo@.... For assistance from a human > being, send mail to: owner-promed@... > > > > -- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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