Whooping cough outbreak at Winthrop schools

4 free views left!

Whooping cough outbreak at Winthrop schools

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

OKANOGAN, Wash. (AP) — There's an outbreak of whooping cough among school-age children in the north Cascades town of Winthrop.

Okanogan County Community Health Director Lauri Jones says there have been 12 confirmed cases since December. None of the children are seriously ill.

Jones and clinic nurses met Tuesday with Methow Valley School District officials. There are about 500 students at an elementary and junior-senior high complex in Winthrop.

Jones says about 15 percent of the Winthrop students are not immunized.

One of the students who was confirmed with pertussis on Jan. 3 attended a basketball tournament involving 17 schools on Dec. 28 and 29 at Brewster. Those schools have been advised to watch for an outbreak.

Jones says vaccinations are the best way to prevent the disease from spreading.

___

Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com

» Recommend this story.

» Be the first to comment on this story

Want to comment on this story? All Wenatchee World members are invited to comment on stories, by using the form below. Please know that we at wenatcheeworld.com hope our site is useful, entertaining and civil. So we'll delete comments that are obscene, abusive or way off topic. We appreciate it when readers use the "suggest removal" button to flag inappropriate comments. For more about interacting with the site, see our Use Policy.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.