To Parents/Guardians of Students at Century High School and Staff:
Four cases of pertussis (whooping cough) have been confirmed in Century students over the past 2 weeks. In addition, there have been 8 other reports of cases throughout Olmsted County in the past 2 weeks. This places us at over 200 confirmed cases in the past 6 months and continues the epidemic status Minnesota has been experiencing this year.
Pertussis is a contagious bacterial illness spread by droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
If your student is experiencing a persistent cough lasting more than one week and the cough seems to occur in uncontrollable fits or causes vomiting and/or difficulty breathing, keep your student at home and contact his/her health care provider to request a test for pertussis. If tested, keep the person at home until test results are known.
Pertussis often starts out looking like the common cold before a minor cough develops that gradually becomes worse. Disease can occur in any age group however infants under 1 year old are at most risk for serious illness. Persons with confirmed pertussis are placed on antibiotics and excluded from activities for 5 days. In a confirmed case, household contacts with symptoms that have not been tested must also be excluded for the 5 days of antibiotic treatment.
Olmsted County Public Health has identified close contacts of the confirmed cases to date and made recommendations for preventive treatment. Currently, Public Health is not recommending anyone else at Century get the preventive treatment.
The intent of this message is to inform parents of the possibility of pertussis in persons with a persistent cough so they can be tested.
The incubation time for pertussis is usually 7 to 10 days, but may be as long as 21 days.
Please observe your child for persistent coughing until at least November 23 – or longer if more cases are identified in the next few weeks.
Prevention and control of pertussis includes hand washing, covering your cough, and vaccination. Children typically receive 4-5 doses of pertussis-containing vaccine before kindergarten and get a booster at age 10 to 12 years. All adolescents and adults are encouraged to get a one-time booster of Tdap (tetanus/diphtheria/pertussis) because immunity decreases over time.
CLICK HERE FOR AN INFORMATION SHEET ABOUT PERTUSSIS.
Additional information on pertussis in school-age children is available on the MN Department of Health website at http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/pertussis/pfacts.pdf
You may also contact Olmsted County Public Health Services at 328-7500 with any questions.
Century HS PTSA and Volunteer Information Resource Page
