NY Whooping Cough Outbreak Moves State into Top 5 Outbreaks Nationally
Jefferson County Pertussis Cases Nearly Double New York Total
The latest report from the California Department of Public Health is dated Nov. 30. They report a total of 7,297 cases of whooping cough in their state. The latest report from the Jefferson County N.Y. Public Health Service is dated Dec. 7 and reports 463 confirmed pertussis cases in that county since Nov. 8.
The data in the MMWR for Week 48 are missing 4,672 reported pertussis cases from California. The report is also missing at least 90 percent of the Jefferson County cases. Only 69 total new cases were reported for week 48 from New York State, while the county reported hundreds. The public health agencies involved have been overwhelmed by the outbreaks and the paperwork is lagging. The publicly announced counts on the websites are correct, and the CDC data will have to catch up.
The national case count, including the correct California whooping cough case count, is 23,258 cases in 2010. California is first. Texas follows with 2,385 cases, then Ohio and Michigan with 1,626 and 1,305 reported cases, respectively.
Without the Jefferson County numbers fully reported to the CDC, New York is eighth with 654 cases. With the addition of the county numbers, New York vaults into fifth place, passing Pennsylvania - 797 cases, Illinois - 778 cases and Minnesota with 698 cases. New York has between 900 and 1,100 cases, with Jefferson County's outbreak added to the data.
Whooping cough cases in California, New York and West Virginia have more than tripled in number from 2009. Case counts in Iowa, Wisconsin, Colorado, Idaho and Connecticut have more than doubled year over year. Eight other states have increased at least 50 percent from their 2009 pertussis case counts.
Some states are reporting fewer whooping cough cases than last year. New Hampshire and Louisiana report 25 percent of their 2009 total. Missouri and Arkansas are at about half of last year's counts, with Missouri showing the greatest drop in count from 969 cases in 2009 to 508 pertussis cases so far in 2010.
Published by Charles Simmins
Charles Simmins is a native Western New Yorker with nearly thirty years of experience at senior level accounting positions in non-profit and for profit organizations. He was a volunteer firefighter, and a vo... View profile
What is Whooping Cough?Whooping cough is an extremely infectious disease which most severely affects infants less than six months of age.
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