Lower Merion High School Student Diagnosed With Whooping Cough

A tenth-grader at Lower Merion High School has been diagnosed with pertussis (whooping cough), according to a letter posted to the school’s website Tuesday afternoon.

Pertussis is a highly contagious, bacteria-caused respiratory disease.

The Montgomery County Health Department, according to the better, has made the following recommendations:

Parents/Guardians should review each child’s health record to determine the vaccination status of the child.Children should be observed over the next 2 weeks for any symptoms such as a running nose, sudden, uncontrollable bursts or spells of coughing that persist and sometimes cause vomiting. These symptoms should be reported immediately to your pediatrician.If your child comes down with cold symptoms that include a cough, the child should be evaluated by his/her pediatrician. Evaluation should include a nasopharyngeal culture for pertussis.Children with pertussis, if their medical condition allows, may return to school five (5) days after starting appropriate antibiotics and must continue taking the antibiotics until completed.All household members and close contacts of a pertussis case should receive preventative antibiotics regardless of their age or vaccination status.

The letter also recommended that children under 7 who have yet to complete the full recommended vaccination schedule to do so immediately.

Two cases of whooping cough were reported in the Lower Merion schools nearly exactly three years ago, in October of 2012.