Indiana sees higher rate of whooping cough this year\nSOUTH BEND -- The number of whooping cough cases in Indiana has nearly doubled since 2003, and health officials are at a loss to explain why.\nEighty-seven cases of whooping cough have been reported so far this year in Indiana, up from 44 cases recorded at the same time in 2003, health officials said.\nWayne Staggs, an epidemiologist with the Indiana State Department of Health, said St. Joseph County has the most cases in Indiana, with 18.\nCounties do not have to report to the state until they have five cases, and so far only St. Joseph has topped that.\n"Others (counties) will go over five cases soon," Staggs told the South Bend Tribune for a story Tuesday.\nWhooping cough has been on the rise in recent years. Nationwide, cases of the illness, also known as pertussis, are up 60 percent with about 9,000 cases this year, compared to some 5,500 at the time a year ago, Staggs said.\nHealth Department spokeswoman Margaret Joseph said Tuesday the Indiana increase could be the result of better diagnoses or immunizations wearing off in children approaching teenage years.\n"Certainly these kinds of diseases wax and wane," Joseph said.\nPertussis often causes symptoms similar to the common cold, Joseph said, so adults may think they have a cold and visit a day care center or school. That can spread the disease, which can be fatal for young children.\n"After a week or two, the coughing becomes worse," Joseph said. "Then it can become five or 10 coughs in a single breath, with a whooping sound and vomiting afterward."\nStaggs said the greatest danger was to infants and children who have not yet received the full vaccine. Joseph urged parents to get vaccines as soon as children are eligible, although even people who have been immunized can get the disease, usually with milder symptoms.
82-year-old killed in crash during honeymoon trip\nFRENCH LICK, Ind. -- An 82-year-old woman on a honeymoon trip to southern Indiana died in a traffic accident less than a day after her wedding.\nThe crash happened Sunday while Frances Hitchcock George and her new husband, Arthur George, were on their way to church. Arthur George, 86, was driving on Indiana 56 when he tried to turn left into a private driveway and their vehicle collided with a pickup truck, according to an Indiana State Police report.\nThe couple had married the day before in Indianapolis.\nJohn Brown, Frances George's brother, learned of her death from a family friend.\n"They said, 'Did you hear the news about Frances?' We thought they were talking about the wedding," Brown said. "You can't describe it without using the word devastating. It's been real hard."\nArthur George was treated at Orange County Hospital for fractured ribs, while the truck driver was not seriously hurt, police said.\nArthur and Frances George began dating last year after a minister introduced them. They were spending their honeymoon at a resort in French Lick, about 50 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky.\nThe Rev. Darren Cushman Wood told the congregation at Speedway United Methodist Church about the death during Sunday's service.\n"This really hit hard because the last memory I have is of her standing at the altar, beaming," said Wood, who presided at the wedding. "Everyone had been pleased because she had found happiness."
Judge orders Conner Prairie finance details\nNOBLESVILLE, Ind. -- A judge ordered Earlham College to provide financial details of Conner Prairie, granting a request by Indiana's attorney general.\nHamilton Superior Court Judge William J. Hughes gave Earlham 60 days to provide an accounting of all receipts and disbursements since the inception of the public charitable trust that set up the living history museum north of Indianapolis.\nEli Lilly, a grandson of the founder of Eli Lilly and Co., donated about $30 million and 58 acres in the northern Indianapolis suburb of Fishers in the 1960s and 1970s to create and develop Conner Prairie.\nEarlham College has been trustee of the museum since Lilly made his donation. In doing so, Lilly also made the Richmond-based Quaker college a beneficiary of the trust.\nThe order issued Monday also requires Earlham to provide an inventory of all properties in the trust and to disclose all payments made to support museum operations or the trust from any other gift from the late philanthropist.\nAttorney General Steve Carter in April filed a motion seeking the accounting. Carter's office began a review of Conner Prairie's finances last year after Earlham fired the museum's president and 27 of its board's 31 members.\nCarter said in January that his office has found no wrongdoing but that he was seeking court approval for creation of a management corporation that would own Conner Prairie property and manage the museum and its money.\nCarter said in a news release Tuesday that he still hoped to reach an out-of-court resolution the dispute over the museum's management.\nA phone at Earlham's public affairs office rang unanswered Tuesday when The Associated Press called seeking comment on the order.
