[ad_1]
APTOS – Local cases of whooping cough, which can put children's lives at risk, have doubled since October 29, prompting an alert from health authorities in Santa Cruz County to prevent the spread of the disease very contagious.
According to the staff of the County Public Health Division, most cases of whooping cough, as medically understood, have been associated with schools.
Dr. Arnold Leff, the county health officer, identified the affected schools as follows: Aptos Junior High School, Aptos High School, New School, an alternative campus in Watsonville for high school students, Orchard School, a private school at Aptos for kindergarten to sixth grade. and Monarch School, a small public alternative school in Santa Cruz for kindergarten to grade five.
"Normally, pertussis is not very serious in adolescents," he said. "But in infants, it can be deadly."
Three Californian infants who contracted pertussis in 2014 died. The state experienced a pertussis epidemic that year, more than 11,000 cases, according to the California Department of Public Health, noting that it was the largest number of cases in over 60 years old.
The treatment includes five days of antibiotics. Leff said it was important to prevent complications such as pneumonia, a lung infection that, if left untreated, can be life-threatening.
Infected people remain contagious for three weeks without antibiotics, said Leff, and health officials recommend leaving children at home from school until they have finished their antibiotics .
Thus, an epidemic in a school could affect attendance, which could affect school funding by the state, based on average daily attendance.
Leff recommends that parents who experience symptoms such as coughing without fever, panting or vomiting, talk to their pediatrician about antibiotics. He recommends an emergency care visit, preferable to the emergency room of the hospital.
For those who do not cough, he advises vaccination.
Pertussis has almost disappeared after a vaccine was developed in 1948 for inoculation against diphtheria, tetanus and whole cell pertussis – called Dtap.
In 1997, a new version containing antigens instead of whole cells was released. According to the Centers for Disease Control, its effectiveness is 80 to 90%, although this is the fifth dose when protection begins to decline.
According to a 2016 study by Kaiser Permanente in northern California of 1,200 vaccinated adolescents from 2006 to 2015, Tdap for children 11 years and older provides short-term protection. This study covered the period during which terrible cough epidemics occurred. 2010 and 2014.
"Routine vaccination with Tdap has not prevented pertussis outbreaks among this highly vaccinated population," the study concluded, adding that the vaccine provided "moderate protection against whooping cough in the first year after vaccination." Falling to less than 9% after four years.
The study's authors, Joan Bartlett and Bruce Fireman, researchers at Kaiser, and physicians Nicola Klein and Roger Baxter, concluded: "The results of this study raise serious questions about the benefits of an administration. systematically a single dose of Tdap to each teenager aged 11 or 12 years. years. Since Tdap provides reasonable short-term protection against whooping cough, it could more effectively contain pertussis when it was administered to adolescents in anticipation of a local outbreak of pertussis rather than systematically. "
Kaiser bought the vaccine for the study at GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, who provided research support to Baxter, who died in 2016, and to Klein, according to the study, published in the journal Pediatrics in March 2016.
According to Leff, it is better to have protection than not to have one.
COQUELUCHE
If you have symptoms: Consider consulting a doctor when the cough becomes more severe.
If you know that you have been exposed: See your doctor. If you have received a notice of exposure, bring it to your medical appointment.
How to prevent: Vaccination usually provides good protection during the first years, but then decreases. A booster shot can enhance protection. Wash hands with soap and water for 15 to 20 seconds; Cough and sneeze in your elbow rather than in your hand and teach the children to do the same. Stay home after work or school to prevent others from getting sick.
Information: https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/. For public health issues, call the Communicable Diseases Unit of the Santa Cruz County Health Services at 831-454-4114.
Source link
