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Public health officials suspect that a 2-month-old baby at a local hospital is infected with whooping cough, another sign that the nearly eradicated disease is re-emerging not only in the United States but also in West Virginia.

"For the last six months, I've been greatly concerned," said Dr. James Felsen, medical director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department.

The baby, a Kanawha County boy at Thomas Memorial Hospital, has undergone numerous tests over the past few days. Other diseases have been ruled out. Hospital spokeswoman Joanna Isaac said doctors could learn today whether it's whooping cough, also called pertussis.

Meanwhile, family members are being tested and then given doses of the antibiotic erythromycin. Also, it was suggested that hospital staff working closely with the baby also take the antibiotic.

Hospital officials declined to identify the family.

Before scientists introduced a series of vaccines for whooping cough in the 1950s, it killed more U.S. children than all other infectious diseases combined, according to the American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine. During the 1930s and 1940s, thousands of deaths occurred. Currently, there is just a handful.

Caused by infected air-borne droplets, whooping cough inflames the entire respiratory tract, leading to sneezing, nasal discharge, fever and a mild cough.

The cough worsens over about three weeks. In a desperate attempt to fill his lungs, a baby will emit a high-pitched, whooping sound. He may cough so violently, he vomits or turns blue, said Dr. Danae Bixler, state director of infectious disease and epidemiology.

"As one ages, the clinical picture is less dramatic," Bixler said.

Yet an adult may carry the bacterium and infect others, not knowing what is producing the symptoms.

That happened a few months ago in another Kanawha County family.

The grandfather had coughed for months before seeking treatment. Ten family members tested positive for the disease and were treated.

Also, another local case was diagnosed recently, Felsen said.

Whooping cough can cause death in a small percentage of cases. Antibiotics are not nearly as effective once the baby reaches the uncontrolled coughing stage.

Between three and seven cases have been reported each of the last five years in West Virginia. However, so far this year, there have been 14 cases, Bixler said. She said she believes none resulted in death.

This week, the Upshur County Health Department reported six cases over the last few months, a spokeswoman there said.

From a high of 260,000 U.S. cases in 1934, the number dropped dramatically to 1,010 in 1976, because of the vaccine. However, during 2000, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported 7,867 confirmed cases of whooping cough -- more than seven times the earlier low.

Most of the cases were among infants but a growing number is occurring among those over 10 years of age.

"We want to know where the heck it's coming from," Felsen said.

Federal health officials are warning that whooping cough is re-emerging worldwide. But they don't know why. They theorize the bacteria have become more virulent, that the vaccine is weak or that its protection wanes over time.

In Arkansas, for example, an outbreak sickened more than 1,000 junior and high school students recently. Nearly all of them had received the required vaccine series that starts at 2 months of age. The last of five is given at about 5 years of age.

The vaccine is not approved for those over 7 years because it's not clear whether advantages outweigh risks of adverse reactions to it. For babies, one in about 100,000 has a severe reaction.

Yet there is a shortage of the vaccine officials expect to continue until year's end.

Indeed, the CDC recommends deferring the last two doses until supplies increase.

Felsen worries that pediatricians aren't suspicious enough to test for the once nearly extinct but highly infectious whooping cough.

Perhaps the recent rise in the number of West Virginia cases will alert them.

"Pertussis is coming back big time," Felsen said.

Writer Therese Smith Cox can be reached at 348-4874.