To curb the spread of whooping cough, Whitman County Public Health has been partnering with WSU.

WCPH is currently partnering with Cougar Health Services and WSU’s Environmental Health and Safety Office, which acts as Cougar Health Services’ public health branch, in order to minimize the spread of whooping cough at WSU.

“Whenever there are cases we coordinate between the two to get information,” said Jamie Peters, a clinical supervisor at Whitman County Public Health, said. “When we get a report of a whooping cough case, the first thing that we do is verify that the case has actually been confirmed and that the person is actually sick.”

Once somebody has been confirmed to be sick, a small investigation is conducted in order to make sure that the individual is aware of what they have, the treatment plan and what populations to avoid.

“[This is] mostly infants, pregnant women, young children, elderly and immunocompromised people,” said Peters.

Dr. Sunday Henry, director of medical services at Cougar Health Services, said that students should come in to get tested if they experience a prominent cough or coughing fits alongside other symptoms that can be found in other respiratory illnesses, such as fever and congestion.

“Any coughing to the point of vomiting is what we would see more in [the age group of students] than the actual ‘whoop,’” Henry said. 

Henry added that if a student has been around others who have had whooping cough, they should “err on the side of coming in and getting tested.”

Henry added that the Cougar Health Services lab has a rapid test that can turn around within a day or less. 

At WSU, if whooping cough is found within an individual who is in any sort of congregate living such as dormitories or Greek life housing, public health then gets involved. According to Peters, this primarily looks like informational resources given to the student population with an emphasis on the living setting the sick student resides in. 

The worst case scenario for whooping cough at WSU would be if it were to spread outside the campus community to places like daycares or nursing homes, Henry explained. In this scenario, people could end up hospitalized or dead. 

Prevention methods for whooping cough come down to being vaccinated and staying away from others who are sick.

“What we want to do when we start seeing cases is protect the vulnerable,” Henry said. “You do that by having a high vaccination rate, by having access to healthcare and testing and having a high level of suspicion and coordination amongst the healthcare providers and public health.”

Henry placed an emphasis on treating close contacts — anyone who has been around someone for a certain period of time who has been diagnosed — in order to prevent the spread of whooping cough.

At WSU, the vaccination rates for whooping cough among incoming students are high, according to Henry. 

Henry added an emphasis on having a high-level of suspicion and being aware of the differences for the whooping cough vaccine.

“The vaccine for [whooping cough] does not confer lifelong immunity. It confers immunity for 46 years and then it wanes,” Henry said. 

Peters and Henry explained the treatment plan for whooping cough, which includes five days of antibiotics. While the coughing may still persist, after these five days, the individual is not considered to be contagious anymore. 

“State and nationally we’ve had a big whooping cough outbreak in the last year or so that’s been more than we’ve had historically for about ten years,” Peters said. “But it comes and goes in waves where there will be a lot of cases and then we won’t have outbreaks for a while, so we are in one of those outbreak windows right now.”

Peters warned that the travel between Pullman and Spokane could lead to more exposure of whooping cough.

“This is the beginning of respiratory season. COVID, flu [and] RSV all start spreading now too,” said Peters. “So we will expect to see more [whooping cough] cases.”

Last year, Peters explained, whooping cough began to rise in early September prior to a large spike in October. Following the holiday season, whooping cough begins to taper off.

“We’ve seen some [cases], but nothing like last year,” Henry said. “But we’re early in the game here. The next six weeks tends to be the busiest time at the health center from the standpoint of upper-respiratory stuff.”

Whooping cough is a notifiable condition in the state of Washington, meaning that it is mandatory that healthcare providers, schools and laboratories report cases once they’ve been identified.

Whitman County currently has 12 reported cases. WSU requires all students to receive one dose of the TDaP (tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough/pertussis) vaccine in the last 10 years or one dose after turning 18.