Whooping cough trend continues in Suffolk

The number of whooping cough cases in Suffolk County has hit 40, continuing a trend from last year, health officials said Wednesday.

An eighth-grader at Westhampton Beach Middle School is the most recent student in that district to be diagnosed, said Michael Radday, superintendent of Westhampton Beach schools. Three students in the district have been diagnosed with whooping cough so far this school year, he said.

The latest case resulted in a letter dated Jan. 9 from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, informing Westhampton Beach parents of the case and that "Suffolk County continues to see an increase" in the respiratory disease, also known as pertussis.

The 40 new cases confirmed in Suffolk so far this year are on top of 303 last year, affecting 22 school districts in all, Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. James Tomarken said.

With whooping cough, "you get peaks and valleys," he said, adding he expects the rate to "drop off, come up, go down again."

Fifty-four cases were reported in 2010, said Suffolk health department spokeswoman Grace Kelly-McGovern.

Nassau County saw 66 cases last year, with 15 each in November and December.

It was "a big year for us," said Carolyn McCummings, public information officer for the Nassau County Health Department.

The ages of those affected ranged from 1 to 51, she said, but the majority of those diagnosed were ages 8 to 13. Nassau reported 27 cases of whooping cough in 2010, and no accurate figures for this year are yet available, she said.

Whooping cough is a respiratory infection characterized by spasmodic coughing and spread by contaminated airborne droplets. Unvaccinated infants are especially vulnerable to infection, which can be fatal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of infants younger than 1 year who are infected must be hospitalized, data from the federal agency show.

But seniors, those 65 and older, especially those caring for grandchildren, can be a forgotten group and are also susceptible, Tomarken said.

Antibiotics can effectively treat pertussis; vaccines exist in pediatric and adult formulations.

With Gary Dymski and Delthia Ricks