Dr. Kathy Harriman with the California Department of Public
Health says the number of whooping cough cases probably won't go
down anytime soon.
"It's not good news. We would see it going up before it goes
down."
Whooping cough…or pertussis…typically peaks in August and
September. It's a cyclical disease, so Harriman says the bump in
numbers wasn't unexpected. But pertussis can be hard to
diagnose.
"The symptoms can be very deceivingly mild and often not
recognized by healthcare providers. It is frustrating and certainly
the infant deaths are just tragic because pertussis is a
vaccine-preventable disease."
The infants who died were all newborns who caught the disease
from adults. That's why state health officials are urging people to
get vaccinated with Tdap…it's a booster shot that helps prevent the
spread of pertussis.
So far this year, there've been 584 cases of pertussis. That's about three-times last year's number.
So far this year, there've been 584 cases of pertussis. That's about three-times last year's number.
