OCR Text |
Show Health Department investigates local cases of Whooping Cough During the past two days, the City-County Health Department of Utah County has investigated three confirmed cases of Pertussis or Whooping Cough in northern Utah County children. There are several other children from these affected families that have also had symptoms symp-toms of Pertussis. The first of these cases was confirmed two weeks ago and required hospitalization, but I medical personnel did not notify the , health department at that time. , The health department did receive reports of the two additional cases the past two days. One of these was also hospitalized. An investigation of the affected families was made and immunizations im-munizations and preventive antibiotics an-tibiotics have been given to susceptible family contacts. This emphasizes once again the importance of parents protecting their children as early as possible with adequate immunizations. Also older children should be protected so they will not spread the disease to infants that are too young to be protected and more susceptible to serious complications of the disease. The disease is particularly severe in infants and pre-school children. Recently some misinformed individuals in-dividuals have advocated not immunizing im-munizing children against Pertussis. Per-tussis. However, the risk of death and serious complications from the disease are many, many times greater than the relatively rare adverse reactions to the immunization. im-munization. The DTP (Diptheria, Tetanus and Pertussis) immunizations should be given at 2, 4, 6 and 18 months of age. Then a booster is recommended before the child starts school. Parents can obtain these shots for their children from their physician's office. Also, the health department immunization clinic provides immunizations on weekdays week-days from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Children and adults with persistent per-sistent coughing should see their physician and should not attend school or public gatherings. It is mandatory that medical personnel report cases of Pertussis to the health department as soon as they are diagnosed. |