Whooping Cough Case Confirmed at Monterey Heights Elementary School

Three new cases of whooping cough in San Diego County were confirmed Tuesday, including one case involving a student at Monterey Heights Elementary School.

According to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency, the student is an 11-year-old who was not immunized. The agency is warning that possible public exposure may have occurred.

The Lemon Grove School District received confirmation of the case March 17 and letters went out the next day to the families of the 467 Monterey Heights students, says Superintendent Ernie Anastos.

This is the first case of whooping cough confirmed in the school district since the epidemic began in 2010.

“We’ve been in really good shape, which is great,” Anastos says. The school is now on a 21-day “cough watch” to see if the disease was spread to anyone else.

As of Tuesday, there have been 147 cases of pertussis—whooping cough—reported in the county in 2011. The county had a record-breaking 1,144 cases in 2010.

The letter sent out by the school district warning parents about the possible exposure explains that pertussis is spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, lists symptoms, and points out who is at the highest risk of catching the disease.

A typical case of pertussis—known as whooping cough for the distinctive sound those who have it make when suffering fits of coughing caused by the disease—starts with a runny nose and cough for about one to two weeks. That period can be followed by weeks to months of the rapid coughing fits, according to the agency. Fever, if present, is usually mild. The disease is treatable with antibiotics.

The other new cases of whooping cough confirmed in the county involve a 3-year-old who was not up to date on vaccinations, and attends Sanderling Waldorf School in Encinitas; and a 3-year-old who was current on vaccinations, and attends Mission Montessori Preschool in Oceanside.

Public health officials continue to urge vaccination, and recommend a pertussis booster shot (Tdap) for children 7 to 9 who did not get all their routine childhood vaccines, and for everyone 10 and older who have not yet received it.

For more information about whooping cough, please call the HHSA Immunization Branch at (866) 358-2966, or visit the web site at www.sdiz.org.