Whooping cough baffles officials

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Health officials do not have an explanation for why more cases of whooping cough continue to appear in St. Joseph County and are urging parents to be on the lookout for signs of the disease.\nThe county, which includes South Bend, had 39 cases as of Thursday, according to state Health Department figures. Some 20 other cases were still being investigated -- numbers that continued to rise, said Melinda Konrath, nursing director of the county Health Department.\nWhile the number of whooping cough cases is up statewide, Konrath said the agency had found no reason for the large numbers in St. Joseph County.\n"It is strange; why us, why now?" she said.\nThe number of statewide cases for this year was reported Thursday at 119, state Health Department spokeswoman Margaret Joseph said. All but three of St. Joseph County's cases have been identified since June 25, she said.\nNorthwestern Indiana's Porter County, with seven cases, had the second-highest number reported to the state agency.\nHealth experts say whooping cough does occur in cycles.\n"These things wax and wane, and we don't really know why," Joseph said.\nKonrath said that should parents make sure that children younger than 7 have been immunized and that anybody with symptoms of whooping cough should see a doctor.\nWhooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a bacterial infection that causes sufferers to experience fitful coughs sometimes ending with a high-pitched "whoop."\nKonrath said it is also important that anybody who is taking antibiotics for whooping cough stay out of school, day care, work or social gatherings for five days.\nThe disease is usually not serious for adults or older children but can lead to pneumonia or death in young children, especially infants.\nKonrath said some infants younger than 6 months have been hospitalized in St. Joseph County but there are fewer than five of them.\nWayne Staggs, an epidemiologist with the state Health Department, said earlier that the immunization for whooping cough was only 84 percent to 90 percent effective. It also begins to wear off starting about five years after the last dose.