Whooping cough shows up in Utah County high school


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SALEM — Utah County health officials and the Nebo School District are warning families about one confirmed case of pertussis in a Salem Hills High School student.

“We knew of one confirmed case and two that had direct contact,” said Lana Hiskey, spokeswoman for the Nebo School District. “We prepared letters with Utah County health officials and waited for that information to come back. They came back negative.”

Hiskey said the Salem Hills student had close contact with two students – one from Salem Jr. High and another at Foothills Elementary.

Despite negative test results for pertussis (often called whooping cough) for the other two students, school district and county health workers are trying to keep the disease from spreading and that means some kids will not be able to go to school.

“The majority of our students are immunized,” said Hiskey. “However, those children who are exempt from immunizations, it would be important to keep them home for a period of time.”

Hiskey said this is not an outbreak. However, the district is prepared in case officials receive other confirmed cases of pertussis. “We will get information out to parents immediately,” said Hiskey.

On April 23, the Nebo School District and the Utah County Health Department sent a note to parents of Salem Hills students that read in part:


A person attending this school was recently diagnosed with pertussis.This can be spread to others, including unimmunized infants. A booster vaccine (Tdap) is also now available to teenagers and adults. Regardless of the vaccination history, if your child should have the symptoms of pertussis, please see your health practitioner.

–Utah County Health Department


“A person attending this school was recently diagnosed with pertussis.This can be spread to others, including unimmunized infants. A booster vaccine (Tdap) is also now available to teenagers and adults. Regardless of the vaccination history, if your child should have the symptoms of pertussis, please see your health practitioner.”

“We encourage all families to get immunized,” said Hiskey, “so that we can keep our children safe.”

The district and county health officials prepared another note for parents at Foothills Elementary School. That note was never sent because the pertussis test for the student in that class “came back negative,” said Utah County Health spokesman Lance Madigan.

“However the important thing we want to stress is for parents to vaccinate their kids so that we can keep our kids safe,” said Madigan.

The Utah County Health Department reports that if a student becomes infected with pertussis, that student can take antibiotics to treat the bacterial illness. As long as there are no symptoms, county health workers said.

“A child may return to school as soon as he/she has been on an appropriate preventative antibiotic for five days.” However, those students whose parents choose not to administer antibiotics will have to stay away from school for at least two weeks “and that’s for each diagnosed case, meaning that student could be out of school indefinitely depending on how many case come up,” said Madigan.

Nebo School District administrators are asking parents to monitor their children for symptoms of pertussis.

“It looks like a bad cold with coughing,” said Hiskey. “Please let us know immediately.”

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