Whooping cough hits Chicago suburb

[Guest guest]

Recently, whooping cough hit Bainbridge Island, Wash., with a fury and

all of the children and adults I knew who got it, had been

immunizated. Mira

***

 

 

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/11/23/health.cough.health.reut/index.html

 

Whooping cough hits Chicago suburb

POSTED: 1:12 p.m. EST, November 23, 2006

 

 

CHICAGO, Illinois (Reuters) -- For the past two weeks, high school

nurse Colleen Kahler has been on high alert.

 

Her office, which typically treats routine ailments such as sore

throats, stomach aches and pulled muscles, has been transformed into a

screening center for an unlikely disease with a name that recalls a

bygone era -- whooping cough.

 

" We became a triage unit, " says Kahler, health services coordinator at

New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, a tony suburb of Chicago.

 

" The phones were literally ringing off the hook, " she said. " We were

fielding questions from parents, physicians and students. "

 

Health experts said the New Trier outbreak underscores how whooping

cough, a highly contagious respiratory infection, remains a public

health threat in the United States. According to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 25,600 reported

cases in 2005; the true number may top 1 million annually.

 

It killed 13 children, mostly infants, in 2003.

 

Before immunizations became widespread, an average of 147,000 people

in the United States developed whooping cough every year and 9,000 died.

 

Whooping cough is common in countries where children do not receive

vaccinations -- 294,000 people worldwide died of the illness in 2002,

according to the World Health Organization.

 

It is making a resurgence in other developed countries, such as

Britain. Germany began vaccinating teens against pertussis in 2000.

Cause debated

 

An upswing of reported cases in the past decade is a source of debate

among health professionals, who attribute it both to waning immunity

in teenagers and adults and improved detection. Neither the vaccine,

nor infection with the bacteria itself, offer lifelong protection.

 

Beginning at two months of age, babies get vaccinated against whooping

cough, also known as pertussis, as part of an early childhood

immunization series that includes diphtheria and tetanus.

 

Until last year, with the approval of a new type of vaccine for people

aged 11 to 64, adolescents got only a booster shot for diphtheria and

tetanus because the vaccine used in recent years was not approved for

people over the age of 7 because of concern about possible side effects.

 

New Trier had 26 confirmed cases of pertussis by November 16, or

one-third of all those reported in suburban Cook County. The school's

first case was detected in late August when students returned from

summer break. There have also been reports of sporadic cases at other

high schools in the area.

 

Since early November, New Trier has been operating under directives

from local health authorities to treat the situation as an outbreak.

 

" If your child has a cough, please do not send him or her to school, "

the local health department said in a letter to New Trier parents.

Limiting the spread

 

New Trier has been trying to limit potential spread to other schools

by canceling some athletic and extracurricular events, circulating

fact sheets, letters and e-mails, and keeping a close watch on

students, faculty and staff for signs of the disease.

 

" We don't want to alarm everyone, so it's a big balancing act, " said

Dr. Catherine Counard, assistant medical director for communicable

disease control at the Cook County Department of Public Health.

" Whooping cough is a serious disease and we need to get this under

control. "

 

Whooping cough is tricky to diagnose because early symptoms are

similar to other respiratory illnesses such as the common cold and

bronchitis.

 

One sign is a persistent dry cough. If detected early, the disease

responds to antibiotics, but it is often diagnosed late and must be

left to run its course.

 

Rarely life-threatening in teens or adults, small children are at risk

for broken ribs, pneumonia, and sometimes death. They typically get

the disease from adults, making containment of an outbreak on the

scale of New Trier's critical.

 

CDC now recommends that adolescents and adults get the new

tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis booster instead of the older vaccine that

included only tetanus and diphtheria. At New Trier, most of the cases

were among older students who had not received the new shot.

 

" We now know that immunity to whooping cough wears off as we age, "

said Dr. Susan Rehm, medical director at the National Foundation for

Infectious Diseases. " The nice news is that this is preventable

through vaccination. "

Other cases

 

As New Trier battles its outbreak, there have been reports of cases of

whooping cough at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a

high school in Palo Alto, California.

 

Trying to get a handle on the health status of more than 4,000

students spread over two school campuses has been no small feat, New

Trier's Kahler recalled. Anyone with a sustained cough -- teachers and

staff included -- has been sent home pending clearance from a doctor.

 

Kahler had to initially double her staff to six nurses and add a

secretary just to keep up with extra paperwork, lab results, student

whereabouts, community outreach and the endless stream of phone calls.

 

Preventive measures at the school have ranged from subtle to humorous.

A large container of Purell hand sanitizer and Kleenex is now a staple

in every classroom. Students were shown a film titled " How to Do It In

Your Sleeve, " which offers a primer on minimizing the spread of germs

when coughing.

 

But despite the school's best efforts, the outbreak has not been easy

on the local community. Many pediatricians were not ready for the

onslaught of requests for pertussis vaccine, and parents have had

difficulty seeking alternative sources.

 

" The numbers are much less now because the kids are getting cleared

and getting treatment, " said school superintendent Linda Yonke. " I

hope we're through the worst. "

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

Alum contains aluminium. I do not think it is a good idea to use it.

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum

 

 

Alum [aluminium potassium sulfate], in chemistry, is a term given to

the crystallized double sulfates of the typical formula

M+2SO4·M3+2(SO4)3·24H2O, where M+ is the sign of an alkali metal

(lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, or caesium), and M3+ denotes

one of the trivalent metal ions (typically aluminium, chromium, or

iron (III)). The ammonium ion (NH4+) also occurs in the M+ position.

 

These salts are employed in dyeing and various other industrial

processes. They are soluble in water; have an astringent, acid, and

sweetish taste; react acid to litmus; and crystallize in regular

octahedra. When heated they liquefy; and if the heating is continued,

the water of crystallization is driven off, the salt froths and

swells, and at last an amorphous powder remains.

 

Potassium alum is the common alum of commerce, although both soda alum

and ammonium alum are manufactured.

 

 

 

 

, " spv1951 "

<spv1951 wrote:

>

> Dear Friends ,

>

> One very simple and effective remedy for WHOOPING COUGH is " Mix

> equal amount of Dried ALUM and SUGAR powder . Give 3 grams ( 1/2 tea

> spoon ) with plain water three times a day . The WC will be cured

> with in a week . This I had used on my son when he cought the WC in

> 1981 at the age of 6 . It really worked excellentlly .

>

>

>

>

>

> , " mirakulu2003 "

> <mirakulu2003@> wrote:

> >

> > Recently, whooping cough hit Bainbridge Island, Wash., with a fury

> and

> > all of the children and adults I knew who got it, had been

> > immunizated. Mira

>