Freedom High School Principal Erik Faulkner sent out the following letter to parents last night informing them that students may have been exposed to Whooping Cough. He is encouraging students to stay home if they have symptoms or until they have completed 5 days of medicine. You will also need to notify your school.
Here is a copy of the letter:
Dear Parent or Guardian:
Your child may have been exposed to whooping cough (pertussis) at school. Whooping cough is spread through the air when people cough or sneeze. Whooping cough is a serious illness that may cause severe choking, coughing and vomiting. Pertussis is a particular threat to babies less than 1 year of age, persons with chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis or asthma.
The vaccine usually protects, but sometimes even immunized children can get whooping cough. It is very important that you check with your child’s health care provider to be sure his/her immunizations are up to date. There are pertussis vaccines for children, adolescents and adults. Children who are not appropriately immunized may be excluded from school if there is an outbreak.
You should suspect whooping cough if your child has sudden burst of uncontrolled coughing that gets progressively worse, choking or vomiting following a coughing episode starting within the next 7-14 days.
If your child has or develops this kind of cough, contact your child’s health care provider right away and keep your child home from school. Your health care provider may want to take laboratory samples from your child’s nose/throat and prescribe medicine for your whole family to take if your child is ill.
Your child should stay home if she/he has symptoms until she/he has completed 5 days of medicine. You will also need to notify your school.
Additional Questions and Resources:
The Contra Costa Public Health Communicable Disease Programs can be reached 8AM-5PM M-F at:
925-313-6740 (phone) or 925-313-6465 (fax). More information may be found at
http://cchealth.org/pertussis/ or http://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/clinical/index.html
Sincerely,
Erik Faulkner
Principal
