In 2019, Jefferson County saw 63 cases of pertussis, known as whooping cough, the largest number of cases in the past 10 years, said Dylan Steigerwald, epidemiologist for the Jefferson County Health Department. He said there also were 63 cases in 2009.
The next largest number of cases during the past decade was 33 in 2014, followed by 32 in 2012. For the other years since 2009, the number of cases ranged from four to 25 each year, Steigerwald said. He said pertussis outbreaks happen every three to five years.
This year most of the whooping cough cases were reported at three school districts – at Antonia Elementary School in the Fox C-6 School District; at Festus High and Festus Intermediate schools in the Festus R-6 School District; and at Hillsboro High, Hillsboro Junior High, Hillsboro Elementary and Hillsboro Primary schools in the Hillsboro R-3 School District.
Festus was the first school district to report cases and ended up with a total of 23 confirmed cases. Fox had 10 reported cases, Hillsboro four confirmed cases.
Steigerwald said cases of confirmed pertussis are reported to the Health Department. He said medical care providers typically report cases to the department once lab tests confirm them.
He recommends people get pertussis vaccinations.
Steigerwald said people typically get their first pertussis when they are around 2 months and end up getting five pertussis vaccines before they turn 11 or 12.
“For our county, we have a very high vaccination rate,” he said.
However, Steigerwald said recent research shows that the pertussis vaccines lose effectiveness over time. “That’s why we do multiple booster vaccine to kind of keep people up to date.” He said adults should get a booster every 10 years.
Steigerwald said the high vaccination rate is the reason the county does not see even more cases of whooping cough each year.
“Even if the vaccine loses effectiveness over time, that’s still the best protection we have,” he said. “Also, a lot of times when the people who are vaccinated end up still getting pertussis, it’s less severe and they’re less contagious to other people around them.”
Steigerwald said an outbreak of pertussis takes two incubation periods to clear. He said an incubation period is 21 days, so an outbreak is cleared after 42 days.
The outbreak at the Festus School District was cleared on Dec. 25, said Kevin Pope, the district’s communications coordinator.
“The counting period began 42 days before that (on Nov. 13). That is when our last confirmed case completed antibiotics and returned to school.”
Festus saw 21 cases at the high school and two at the intermediate school. In addition, 72 students tested negative for pertussis and 24 students were treated with antibiotics, even though they were not tested for the disease.
At the Fox School District, no new cases were reported after Dec. 6, when school officials had announced that there were 10 confirmed cases of the disease at Antonia Elementary, said JP Prezzavento, the district’s communications and instructional technology coordinator.
Tara Edmond, public health investigative nurse, said the Health Department began investigating cases in the Fox district on Nov. 18.
Hillsboro had one case at the high school, one at the primary, one at the junior high and one at the elementary. Hillsboro R-3 Superintendent Jon Isaacson said 11 students were tested and seven tests were negative.
Steigerwald said if new cases of pertussis are reported, those cases would be a new outbreak.
He said pertussis is classed as a respiratory illness.
“You get that cough definitely,” he said. “You may start out with cold-like symptoms, but then it progresses into a pretty nasty cough, sometimes coughing fits that you can’t really stop.”