Whooping cough hits Montana

C.M. Russell High School girls basketball game against Havre High was called off last weekend because a team member contracted pertussis or “whooping cough.”

This prompted concern about the disease and whether it has spread to the Hi-Line.

Although this disease has spread through many parts of Montana, health officials said no cases have been reported on the Hi-Line — they are, however, keeping an eye out for it.

According to CMR’s website, Great Falls Public Schools received word Wednesday, Dec. 10, of two confirmed cases of pertussis at the school.

Kim Larson, public health program assistant at the Hill County Health Department, said that whooping cough is a respiratory illness that is caused by bacteria getting into one’s respiratory tract.

“It just releases toxins and damages your cilia (tiny, hair-like extensions that line part of the upper respiratory system) and everything swells up,” she said. “It spreads by people coughing and sneezing.”

Larson said this illness got its name by the sound an infected person makes while trying to catch their breath in between severe coughing fits.

“(That is) where the whooping sound comes in,” she added.

Jim Murphy, chief of the Communicable Disease Bureau at the Department of Public Health and Human Services, said that when people have whooping cough their respiratory tract gets damaged because the fluid that builds up in their body forces them to cough.

“It also can last for several months. Once that damage is done to your respiratory tract, it recovers slowly,” he said. “This is why we put a lot of importance on identifying cases of pertussis, making sure that those people that are susceptible to it are vaccinated and making sure the people exposed get treated with a simple antibiotic that will keep that infection from taking root.”

Murphy also said about 75 percent of babies under six months of age end up in the hospital due to whooping cough and 50 percent of babies who are under 1 are hospitalized. Murphy added that some infants die from whooping cough.

Whooping cough can affect people of all ages.

“We’ve had elderly patients that have coughed to the point of breaking ribs. The biggest danger is they pass it on to younger people,” he added.

Murphy said that pertussis is highly contagious and that getting vaccinated is strongly encouraged.

“If you're up to date, your chances of getting pertussis go down dramatically,” he said. “It’s a complicated vaccine schedule, but the providers in the health departments know it very well.”

Murphy also recommends to stay up-to-date on the vaccines.

“Most of the cases we have right now are teenagers who have not been vaccinated in a little while,” he said.

Murphy added that pregnant women are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated.

“If you’re a pregnant woman, (it) will also pass on some antibodies to your newborn baby and protect that baby,” he added.

When asked about CMR High School canceling their basketball game, Murphy said that public health facilities discourage people from canceling events that really do not need to be canceled.

“What we try to emphasize is keeping the ill people out of them — from participating,” he said. “Just like we don’t say, ‘Close the school.’ We say, ‘You shouldn’t have the ill person in that setting.’”

Murphy added that people concerned about having contracting whooping cough, they should visit their doctor and get tested. If the test is positive, the doctors will notify public health and investigate the case.

“Other ill people may be found during this process,” he added.

Murphy said if someone has contracted whooping cough they would be put on five-day course of antibiotics. He said there are various antibiotics for this, but azithromycin, which is a five-day set of pills is the main option.

“After five days you would be considered OK to go back to work or school, or basketball. You may still be coughing because of that damage done to the respiratory tract, but because they took the five days of medicine, they would not be a concern for disease transmission anymore,” he said.

Murphy also said that last year Montana had 663 cases of pertussis. This year, as of now, there have been around 450 cases.

“We are going to be less than last year, which is good news,” he added.

Murphy added that one’s local doctor’s office and health departments would be the places to go to seek more information.

“If you’ve been coughing over 10 days and that’s not normal for you, you should consult your medical provider — they may want to test for pertussis,” he said. “We would also ask that person maybe to consider staying out of school, staying away from work until they figure out what is going on.”