SKOWHEGAN — What began as two confirmed cases of whooping cough 10 days ago at the high school and one involving a 7-year-old has spiked to as many as 13 cases districtwide, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Stephen Sears, the state epidemiologist, said that while affected students at the high school may have passed the incubation period, the disease may already have been transferred to family members and friends.

Whooping cough is a “community disease” and highly contagious, he said.

“The cases in the high school were earlier on, so there may not be too many more there, but they could easily have siblings or other exposures,” Sears said. “A community gets this. Our goal is to make everybody aware, so if somebody has symptoms they get diagnosed early, treated and they minimize the possibility of transmitting it to someone else.”

Nine confirmed cases of whooping cough have been reported in Skowhegan area schools, with four more open cases of students with symptoms being investigated, Sears said.

Sears said cases that have been charted in the Skowhegan area since January involve children 7–14, with two cases at the high school.

Sears said one case was in Norridgewock.

“That 13 may turn into 14 or 15 by Monday or Tuesday, or it may not,” Sears said Friday. “We’re evaluating cases all over the state; we’ve got 67 cases in the state.”

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a serious, contagious respiratory disease that can cause long, violent coughing fits and the characteristic “whooping” sound that follows when a person gasps for air.

Brent Colbry, superintendent of School Administrative District 54, said Friday that the Maine CDC had confirmed “positive swabs” of whooping cough with district nurses. He said he did not know the ages of the students affected by the disease.

“There are kids who have signs and symptoms that haven’t been diagnosed; they may have a cold, they may have the flu, they may have allergies,” Colbry said. “There may be kids who had tests with the results that may be pending, but we don’t know any of that. That’s all with the doctors and with the families. All we know is what the CDC tells us. The CDC calls the shots.”

Sears said the incubation period for whooping cough is typically about 10 days. Where there are two people or more people with symptoms, there may be others still in the incubation stage who might have been exposed.

Sears said there were sporadic cases of pertussis in January and February, but the recent cases in the Skowhegan area have developed into a cluster of cases.

“Skowhegan is just one place that this is occurring — it’s happening in several schools in the state,” Sears said. “There were many more cases in Bangor late last year.”

Letters alerting families to the presence of whooping cough were sent home with high school students May 10. A day later, parents of high school baseball and softball players were advised to have their children treated with antibiotics as a precaution.

Sears said cases of whooping cough in California 18 months ago and a current outbreak in the state of Washington are evidence that the disease is still prevalent, despite available vaccines.

Parents are urged to check to see if their children’s vaccines are up to date and to seek medical care if coughing and sneezing persist.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367
dharlow@centralmaine.com