MADISON - About 450 students were still absent yesterday from Madison and Orange County schools because of a minor outbreak of whooping cough, a contagious respiratory illness that has cropped up recently in both counties.

"I think people are very skittish," said Cathy Benner, the assistant superintendent for Orange County schools. "But we think there are kids out that need to be back in school."

A total of 400 students were sent home Tuesday from Orange schools because of the whooping cough scare. About 350 students were absent yesterday.

Benner said only two cases of whooping cough have been confirmed in the school system - one a student and the other a teacher.

David J. Baker, superintendent of the Orange school system, sent a letter to parents yesterday asking them to send their children back to school.

"The Virginia Department of Health has assured us that the majority of those sent home should return to school and do not present a health risk to them- selves or others," Baker said. "The only people that require continued exclusion are those with symptoms of whooping cough or those who have been in contact with a confirmed whooping cough case and refuse to take the recommended medication."

Benner said students "who don't have symptoms and were not in direct contact with those who have whooping cough should come back to school."

In the Madison County school system, where three cases of whooping cough were reported, about 100 students were absent yesterday.

"A number of people were sent home because they had contact," said Marc Carraway, the principal of Madison County High School. "A number of people were told to stay home . . . but we've not had any new confirmed cases."

Nancy Schmitz, the nursing supervisor for the Madison County health department and acting nursing supervisor for Orange County, said eight cases of whooping cough have been confirmed in Madison.

"It's a pretty ubiquitous bacteria. It crops up once in a while," she said.

Schmitz said health workers have been checking health records at schools, day-care facilities and preschools in Madison and Orange, to ensure that young children have been inoculated. Schmitz said the majority of children were found to have been inoculated against the disease.

The health department is also checking for whooping cough in Culpeper County.

There have been a total of 36 cases of the disease reported in the state so far this year, according to the state health department. Nine of those were reported in Albemarle County.

Last year, the state had 134 cases of whooping cough, which is marked by coughing and sneezing. As many as 6,000 cases are reported each year in the United States. Antibiotics are used to treat the infection, which is rarely fatal.

"It will blow over," said Schmitz. "We just don't know when."

Contact Carlos Santos at (804) 295-9542 or csantos@timesdispatch.com

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