May is Hepatitis Awareness Month, but the Lincoln County Health Department is up to its neck in a pertussis outbreak that has seen 12 confirmed cases.

“This qualifies as an outbreak,” said Marci Johnson, director of the Communicable Diseases Department. “We did a clinic last week at Troy (W.F. Morrison) elementary, and we’re doing another in Libby (Thursday).”

Johnson said those 12 cases usually mean others within those famIlies are infected, too.

“If we get a confirmed case in a family and other people are coughing, too, there’s no sense testing them. Pertussis is highly contagious.”

Last week, a notice on the Troy High School Facebook page confirmed three cases of pertussis.

This letter confirmed just three cases at the time. Pertussis is a bacterial infection also known as whooping cough. People with pertussis usually spread the disease by coughing or sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in the pertussis bacteria.

Pertussis starts like the common cold with runny nose, congestion and sometimes a mild fever and light cough. The cough continues to worsen during the next one to two weeks and is usually more severe at night. 

The cough is often characterized by a “whooping sound,” however, not everyone will make the whoop sound,” she said. Long series of coughs (coughing fits) with coughing until the child vomits. 

For more information, call Johnson at 293-4121.