Case of whooping cough reported at Carmel High School

A case of whooping cough has been reported at Carmel High School, officials confirmed Monday.

Parents were notified of the case via a letter from Steven Dillon, director of student services for Carmel Clay High School, Fox59 reports.

The note from Dillon does not provide any specifics about the case but urges parents to be on the lookout for symptoms.

“A case of pertussis (whooping cough) has been identified in Carmel High School and some students and staff may have been exposed either in the classroom or on the bus,” Dillon writes in the statement. “We want you to be alert for the symptoms of pertussis listed below should they occur in your child.”

While the disease is most severe among infants, it's school-age children who are the most commonly afflicted by the illness, according to officials from the Indiana State Department of Health. Children 5 to 18 accounted for 43 percent of all cases in 2011.

Among babies, 50 percent of those who get it are eventually hospitalized. Of 255 reported whooping cough deaths from 2000 to 2012 in the U.S., the vast majority were babies younger than 3 months.

"It is very important anyone having contact with an infant be fully vaccinated with the correct pertussis vaccine for their age," according to an IDH report.

The disease typically progresses in three phases, with the first not unlike a common cold: a slight fever, sneezing, runny nose and a dry cough.

The second phase is often marked by coughing fits and gasping that can sound like “whoop.”

“After a week or two, the cough will become worse,” Dillon said in a statement. “Your child may develop coughing fits, or spasms, followed by vomiting or trouble catching a breath.

“Although your child may appear healthy in between coughing fits, please do NOT send your child to school if he or she has any of the signs and symptoms of pertussis.”

Dillon said if a parent sends a child to school with these symptoms, the parent will be contacted to take the child home.

More information about whooping cough on the ISDH Website: http://www.in.gov/isdh/files/2012QuickFact_Pertussis.pdf.

Call Star reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack.