Flathead County now has 19 confirmed cases of whooping cough (pertussis), according to county Health Officer Joe Russell.

Russell said Monday there were three new confirmed cases on Monday.

“We haven’t done case investigation on the three yet,” Russell said Monday afternoon.

Another 30 test results are pending.

The positive results came from lab tests on children ages 10, 11 and 14. When the department completes case investigations, health officials begin calling families of students exposed to those who are newly diagnosed.

One of the newest cases was a Glacier High School student. Previous cases were from Kalispell Middle School, Swan River School and two elementary schools in Columbia Falls.

At Kalispell Middle School, families of hundreds of students, particularly in the sixth grade, have been contacted by health officials and informed they should take antibiotics to prevent spread of the disease.

Russell said the students shared the same classrooms and other facilities at the school.

He said it wasn’t what health officials wanted to do, but it was the only way to get ahead of the spread of pertussis. “Once they’re prophylaxed, if they’ve stayed to their antibiotic course, we can literally stop the disease in that contact group,” he said.

 He said the pertussis vaccine is not 100 percent effective, but the antibiotic treatment is as close as medical science has gotten to 100 percent effective. Russell said it doesn’t stop the violent cough immediately, but the antibiotic stops transmission of the disease-causing bacteria.

Russell said a number of factors cause pertussis to spread, including a large reservoir of people who haven’t been vaccinated or who haven’t had the booster every 10 years.  

“There’s still a susceptible population out there,” he said. “People are pretty ill. They’re shedding a lot of bacteria, and they’re making even immunized people sick.”

Kalispell Public Schools Superintendent Darlene Schottle issued a notice Monday that students who have not had pertussis vaccinations would be notified they need to complete the five-day course of antibiotics or they likely would be excluded from school for 21 days.

Russell said public health considerations justify keeping these students out of school.

“It’s the only way that if they’ve come in contact with someone with pertussis that we can keep them from becoming the new vehicle of disease transmission,” he said.

Russell said that parents and students were cooperating, although some did so reluctantly. Russell said no one wants to miss out on school or the many sports activities now in progress.

He said people need to understand the reason for the policy.

“This is the only way we are going to get in front of pertussis in the community,” he said. “With these three new cases, we know we’re not in front of it yet.”

School officials passed on the following health department recommendations Monday:

• Contact your doctor if your child is coughing and explain that he or she may have been exposed to pertussis. The provider will likely obtain a nasopharyngeal culture to test for the disease and, if pertussis is suspected, prescribe an antibiotic to lower the risk of the child spreading the disease to others.

• Have all household members seek treatment with antibiotics regardless of age or immunization status if a child in the family receives a diagnosis of pertussis.

• Make sure all the children receive their shots on time to control pertussis in the future. A new vaccine licensed in 2005 offers a combination of tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis (Tdap) for adults and adolescents and is recommend as an alternative to the tetanus-diphtheria booster needed every 10 years.

• Contact your health-care provider if uncertain of a child’s pertussis vaccination status.

Vaccinations

The health department in the Earl Bennett Building on First Avenue West in Kalispell offers immunizations during the following times:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 to 4 p.m.; Wednesday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information, go to http://flathead.mt.gov/communityhealth or call 751-8110.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.