The Ionia County Health Department is advising citizens to be aware that there have been four confirmed cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in Ionia County since Nov. 30 in children from three to 17 months.

Infants/children are not considered fully immunized until they receive their fifth pertussis vaccination at age 4 or 5, before they start preschool or kindergarten.

 

Pertussis is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis with an incubation period of seven to10 days with a range of four to 21 days. The illness is clinically divided into three stages. The first stage by the slow onset of runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever, and a mild, occasional cough, similar to the common cold.

 

The cough gradually becomes more severe, and the second stage begins after one to two weeks when the diagnosis is usually suspected. The stage usually lasts one to six weeks, but may persist up to 10 weeks with bursts of numerous, rapid coughs, with a long indrawn breath is usually accompanied by a characteristic high-pitched “whoop” at the end.

 

During such an attack, the patient may turn blue; children and young infants will appear very ill and distressed. Vomiting and exhaustion commonly follow the episode. Infants younger than six months of age may not have the strength to have a whoop, but they do have bursts of coughing. In the third stage, recovery is gradual. The cough becomes less severe and disappears in two to three weeks.

 

Adolescents, adults, and children partially protected by the vaccine may become infected with B. pertussis but may have milder disease than infants and young children. Pertussis infection in these persons may be without symptoms, or present as illness ranging from a mild cough illness to classic pertussis with persistent cough, lasting more than seven days.//

 

The whoop is not common in older patients. Even though the disease may be milder in older persons, those who are infected may transmit the disease to other susceptible persons, including unimmunized or incompletely immunized infants.

 

Older persons are often found to have been the first case in a household with multiple pertussis cases, and are often the source of infection for children. Please consult your physician if you believe that you may have pertussis or have been exposed to it. Close contact is usually necessary for disease transmission.

 

An antibiotic effective against pertussis should be administered to all close contacts of persons with pertussis, regardless of age and vaccination status. Persons diagnosed with pertussis need to stay home.

 

If there is a case in a school or day care unimmunized children may be excluded from attending for 21 days, the incubation period of pertussis after the last confirmed case.

For more information, consult your physician or visit: https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/