Parents hoping to avoid emergency room visits and extra days home with their sick child this winter should be extra vigilant for whooping cough — for which there was an increase in cases this fall and an upward trend this year.
Nearly six times as many cases of whooping cough had been reported as of the week of Nov. 16 compared to the same time in 2023, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported, and by that month at least 15 cases had cropped up in Anne Arundel County since September.
Anne Arundel County Schools (AACS) had seen three cases as of Oct. 23, including two at Crofton High School and one at Rolling Knolls Elementary School.
The 15 known cases in the county as of November are part of the 121 whooping cough cases seen in Maryland this year, which officials say increased tenfold statewide.
“Whooping cough is a highly infectious respiratory disease that we see here in the nation and in Maryland,” says Dr. Tope Bada, the county’s deputy health officer. “It increased in cases back to what it was before COVID hit.”
Whooping cough is controlled with vaccines, which the CDC recommends for people of all ages.
AACS administrators sent letters to their communities this fall to inform parents of the cases and of the warning signs. Although the symptoms of whooping cough are initially very similar to those of the flu, parents should be on the lookout for a “rapid succession of coughing” that sets the disease apart from the common flu, Bada says.
The schools were taking extra care at the time to thoroughly clean areas where a student with whooping cough might have frequented, according to WBAL News Radio.
Administrators recommend practicing good hygiene in order to avoid contracting the respiratory disease.
