Whooping cough reports on wane

Dr Julian Pettit
Dr Julian Pettit
New cases of whooping cough are still being diagnosed in the South, but the outbreak is ''starting to settle down'', the Southern District Health Board says.

Public health physician Naomi Gough said Public Health South received notification of two possible cases early this week compared with the 15 it was getting during the peak of the outbreak from late July to mid August.

''What we've seen is the number of notifications peaking and now settling. This is what we expect to happen with outbreaks.

''Only time will tell ... how long this continues to go on for. What we're hoping is going to happen is the ... number of cases settles back down to background levels.''

Most of the new confirmed and possible cases continue to be from Wanaka and Hawea. There have been 34 confirmed cases in these areas, an increase of three since August 25. There have also been three confirmed cases in Central Otago, mainly in Cromwell, two in Dunedin and one in Oamaru.

In Wanaka and Hawea at present, there are 31 probable cases - in which all signs point to whooping cough, but doctors are yet to receive the test results - plus 11 in Central Otago, five in Dunedin and four in Queenstown. Two thirds of those affected are children.

Throughout the Southern District Health Board's area, 250 possible cases have been notified since the outbreak became known on July 27, but test results have ruled out whooping cough in about 60% of these.

There has been confusion about whether whooping cough is present in Alexandra at this stage, after

The Terrace School mistakenly posted on its Facebook page that some pupils had contracted the illness. Dr Gough said there had been eight notifications from Alexandra and whooping cough had been discounted in six of them.

The results of tests on the remaining two cases were not yet known, but the patients had been treated for the disease.

All of the Alexandra notifications were for school aged children and all had been fully vaccinated, compared with in Hawea and Wanaka where only half of the affected children were immunised, Dr Gough said.

Wanaka Medical Centre director Julian Pettit said some sectors of the community had responded promptly to the outbreak.

''We've definitely seen a huge increase in whooping cough vaccination in adults, many of whom were unaware their immunity may have waned with time. We now offer this when we update adults' tetanus vaccination at 45 and 65 years of age.''

Mothers of young children, especially babies, had also been proactive, he said, along with women who were in the late stages of pregnancy.

But it appeared the outbreak had not convinced those opposed to vaccination of its benefits, Dr Pettit said.

''Unfortunately, the fact that many of the positive cases were in children who had been vaccinated may give the false impression that vaccination is ineffective.

''Vaccination of children is still the most effective way of preventing those most at risk, babies, from contracting the illness.''

By Jessica Maddock. 

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