Whooping cough breaks out

October 1, 2006

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September 30. 2006 12:00AM Whooping

cough breaks out 28 confirmed

cases at St. <table border=0 cellpadding=0

cellspacing=0><tr><td valign=top class= " text " >By Lee

Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF <A

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</td></tr></table> WORCESTER— Whooping cough has

broken out in St. Hospital in the past month, with 28 cases, all

employees of the hospital, confirmed since Sept. 7. The hospital is

awaiting results of blood tests of another 55 people who exhibited the symptom

of a persistent cough, according to hospital spokesman Dennis L.

Irish. So far there have been no confirmed cases in patients, although

the hospital is awaiting test results for at least one patient, he

said. The state Department of Public Health has not recommended that

people avoid St. Hospital, according to DPH spokeswoman Donna E.

Rheaume. She said that DPH has recommended the hospital send specimens to DPH’s

lab for confirmation testing and the hospital is already treating those who have

been exposed to pertussis, which is the medical name for whooping

cough. St. notified the state last week of the outbreak, Ms.

Rheaume said. St. is the only location of a current outbreak of whooping

cough in the state, she said. In a normal year, 1,000 cases of pertussis are

reported to the state, she said. Dr. Leonard J. Morse, the city’s health

commissioner, said he expects that if there is an outbreak of pertussis, it is

not confined to St. Hospital. UMass Memorial Health Care spokesman Mark

Sheldon said he does not know of any unusual incidences of whooping cough

there. Dr. Morse said, “I don’t think the citizenry should be alarmed. I

think the citizenry should be aware of whooping cough in the community, and with

the awareness, they should seek attention from their medical professional”

should they have a persistent cough or congestion in their respiratory

system. Whooping cough frequently resolves by itself in an adult in two

or three weeks without the patient knowing that he or she has it, according to

Dr. Esposito, St. chief of medicine. In fact, even though 25,000

cases of pertussis are diagnosed nationally, he said, the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention estimates there are between 600,000 and 1 million cases

in the United States each year. Although Mr. Irish said the first case at

St. was reported to the city on Sept. 8, Dr. Morse said he did not

become aware there were a significant number until Thursday. While he said

communication could have been better, “I have full confidence in what was done

at the hospital and compliment them for their management.” Dr. Esposito

said he has a sense the problem is abating at St. but “we’ll know better

next week” after test results are available. St. has assigned

extra nurses, even taking resources from its sister hospital, MetroWest Medical

Center in Framingham, to control the problem, he said. “The health office staff

is going to all units, trying to identify anyone who has a cough, sending those

people home.” Those employees who have a cough are given a blood test and those

on the unit are given prophylactic antibiotics, he said. Since a new

vaccine for whooping cough became available in June 2005, the hospital has urged

all staff who come into contact with patients to get the vaccine, Dr Esposito

said. It previously had planned to begin those immunizations this month, and the

program in fact will get under way next month, he said. The vaccine eliminates

many of the bad reactions the previous vaccine had and takes two weeks for the

vaccine to take effect, according to Dr. Esposito. The hospital is

redoubling its efforts to get employees who cough to report to its health

office, rather than directly to their work areas. The hospital has

identified a physician whom it believes brought the current outbreak into the

hospital. The confirmed cases are concentrated in staff working in the operating

suites, with at least one other in the gastrointestinal endoscopy area, Dr.

Esposito said. The first symptoms of pertussis appear about seven to 10

days after a person is exposed. People with pertussis can spread the disease

starting up to two weeks before and until three weeks after the cough starts, or

until they have finished five days of antibiotic treatment, according to

DPH. Whooping cough can be dangerous in infants. In older children and

adults, the disease is milder but can last for weeks or months. <hr

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