Whooping cough cases at 75 year high

Photo: Lisa F. Young, Photos.com

Dec 26, 2012 at 6:38 am

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KNSI) The Minnesota Department of Health is hoping the new year will bring a drop in cases of whooping cough, with 2012 seeing the highest number in 75 years.

Epidemiologist Cynthia Kenyon says they’ve recorded more than 4,300 cases of pertussis this year.

Kenyon says Minnesota began seeing an increase in pertussis cases in 2008 among nine- to 12-year-olds, who were some of the first children to receive what was then the new pertussis vaccine.

The last time the state had this large of an outbreak of whooping cough was in 1937, when the total reached 4,851 cases.

Nationally, the pertussis figure is the largest it’s been in more than a half century.

Posted By Mike Tanner

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