The Pennsylvania Department of Health is tracking a pertussis outbreak primarily among students in the Stroudsburg area. Pertussis, commonly referred to as whooping cough, is a highly contagious upper respiratory disease that is particularly dangerous for young children, especially infants.

Before the availability of a vaccine in the 1940s, pertussis was one of the most common childhood diseases worldwide and a major cause of childhood mortality in the United States. Even today, half of infants with pertussis will be hospitalized.

St. Luke’s Pediatrics Chairman Jennifer Janco, MD, offers the following advice to parents:

1. Make sure you and your family are vaccinated. If you are a pregnant mother, get your Tdap vaccine to protect your newborn since he/she won’t able to start the pertussis vaccine series until 2 months of age.
2. If you or your child has symptoms compatible with pertussis and/or has been exposed to the contagion at school or elsewhere, contact your primary care doctor or pediatrician before going to a hospital ER or urgent care center, where you could infect others. Your primary care doctor or pediatrician may be able to perform an assessment and prescribe medication by phone or video.
3. If you have pertussis or are awaiting your pertussis test results, isolate at home for five days after starting antibiotics to limit further spread. St. Luke’s will provide notes for work or school as needed.

Dr. Janco noted that diagnosing upper respiratory illnesses this time of year is challenging.

Pertussis has many similarities with other respiratory infections currently circulating in the community, such as influenza or Covid or the common cold. Contacting your health care provider for further guidance on your symptoms and risk is the best next step.

However, in cases when a diagnosis of pertussis is confirmed, all contacts living in the household should be treated with antibiotics to prevent further spread. Certain other high-risk contacts may qualify for treatment as well.

Additional information is available on the CDC website: https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/index.html.

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 45 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 400 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/Merative 11 times total and eight years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy