Children's hospital ER staffers contract whooping cough

http://www.king5.com/topstories/NW_021102whoopingcough.dde82b9.html

02/11/2002

The Associated Press

TACOMA – Six emergency room employees at Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Health Center have contracted whooping cough, and all ER personnel at the hospital have been given antibiotics.

No patients have been linked to what Marcia Patrick, the hospital's infection control manager, said Sunday was a "cluster" rather than an outbreak of the disease.

"I think we've caught this very, very early," Patrick said. "We are not seeing symptoms or illnesses outside of the emergency department, but we are keeping a very close eye on that."

Six children were treated in the emergency room for whooping cough in the previous week, but there is no apparent link between the two sets of cases, she said. Hospital officials are in the process of contacting the parents of every child who came through the hospital in the past three weeks and may have been exposed.

Late last week, one employee tested positive for whooping cough and five more cases were identified in further tests Friday and Saturday, Patrick said. None was described as seriously ill.

• Whooping cough

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Whooping cough, characterized by a nagging, staccato-like cough, is rarely fatal, accounting to fewer than one death a year statewide over the past five years.

Most children are inoculated against whooping cough, but the effects of the vaccine generally wear off by age 12. The vaccine is not recommended for adults because of possible side effects, but a new vaccine is being tested, Patrick said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, whooping cough was one of the most common childhood diseases of the 20th century and a major cause of death in children. It is often referred to as "pertussis."

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