Whooping Cough Outbreak Declared for West Chester School

There is an outbreak of Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, at the Hillsdale Elementary School in West Chester, officials say.

Only days after a case of whooping cough was confirmed at another Chester County school - Great Valley High School - the superintendent of West Chester Area School District announced Tuesday that its elementary school has an “outbreak” of the highly contagious disease.

There have been two cases of Pertussis confirmed at the Hillsdale Elementary School and that’s all the health department needs to declare an outbreak, superintendent Dr. Jim Scanlon said in a letter sent home to parents.

Scanlon said that any student or employee who does not have all of the necessary vaccines will not be allowed into school.

The Chester County Health Department immediately dispatched staff with Pertussis vaccine to Hillsdale. Health officials searched through immunization records and say six students had to be vaccinated.

"By the end of the day we had Department of Health nurses come in," said Dr. Scanlon. "We brought the faculty together. By 4:30 that afternoon we had all of our staff immunized or proof of immunization." 

Lauren Scebelo, a parent of one of the students at Hillsdale also ended up getting a shot.

"The Department of Health provided free vaccines for children and parents," said Scebelo. "I was able to go yesterday morning and I got it done in a minute. It was so easy." 

"Dr. Scanlon and his staff did a great job communicating to the parents the needs and what had to happen," said Karen Woodeshic-Orkin, another parent of one of the students.

Tim Ogden and his son didn't need the vaccine. He told NBC 10 he hopes the health scare will be a wake up call for parents.

"It's a hassle for a lot of the parents and a lot of the teachers to have to go through and get the updates," said Ogden. "We wouldn't have had to do this in the first place if their parents had gotten their kids vaccinated the way they should have." 

According to the Chester County Health Department, Pertussis is spread through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs. It begins with cold symptoms and a cough that becomes much worse over one to two weeks.

Symptoms usually include a long series of coughs (coughing fits) followed by a whooping noise.  However, older children, adults and very young infants may not develop the whoop.  There is generally no fever, officials say.

People with Pertussis may have a series of coughs followed by vomiting, turning blue, or difficulty catching their breath.  The cough is often worse at night and cough medicines usually do not help alleviate the cough.  The disease can be very severe and, although deaths are rare, they do occur, especially in infants less than one year of age, according to the health department.

For any parent who wants to have a child vaccinated, the Chester County Health Department offers free vaccinations for children under the age of 18 on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The vaccine is also available free of charge for adults.

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