PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Upper Merion High School sent a letter home to parents earlier this week alerting them to a case of whooping cough in the school. But according to Montgomery County health officials, after a high number of cases in the late spring and through the summer, cases are on the decline.
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a bacterial infection that causes severe coughing.
“If untreated, to the point where you have these paroxysms of cough, it's very difficult to catch one's breath,” explained Dr. Richard Lorraine, medical director of the Montgomery County Office of Public Health. “You have that sudden intake of breath that sounds like a whoop.”
Unlike a typical cold, which gets better after a few days, Lorraine said whooping cough gets worse over the first week to two weeks. It’s most dangerous to infants and people aged 65 and older but is treatable with anti-bacterial medication.
“If you're not noticing improvement, and it's actually getting worse after a week of symptoms, that would definitely be the time to consult with a health care practitioner,” Lorraine said.
But pertussis is covered by the T-DAP vaccine. “This is a somewhat vaccine-preventable disease, and we do immunize,” he said. “However, it's pretty well known that the immunity does wane over time.”
It takes about five years, Lorraine said, but people who are vaccinated do tend to have less severe symptoms.
Pertussis cases are usually seasonal like other respiratory illnesses, according to Lorraine, with cases typically climbing in the late fall and winter months. This year has been different, however, with a rise in early spring through the fall.
“Now that we're heading into the heart of respiratory season in the winter, we're seeing a very small number of pertussis cases,” he said. “From a high of about 80 cases per month in the county, we're now down to about six, so it's definitely on the decrease.”
He said the Upper Merion School District did the right thing by alerting parents and reaching out to the county health department.
In addition to keeping up with vaccines, Lorraine said other preventative measures, like washing hands, avoiding sick people, and staying home — if you can — when you have symptoms, slow the spread.