Whooping cough is still spreading as the outbreak intensifies in southern Alberta

Dozens more cases of whooping cough, also known as whooping cough, have been reported as an outbreak in southern Alberta shows no signs of stopping.

And elsewhere in the province sporadic cases of the highly contagious disease, which can be prevented by vaccination, are emerging.

A total of 304 Albertans tested positive for whooping cough this year. That includes 279 cases in the southern zone, where an outbreak was declared in January.

According to Alberta Health Services (AHS), 53 new cases have been diagnosed in the province since mid-June. It could not say how many of those cases were found in the southern zone.

But previous data from AHS linked the southern zone outbreak to 186 cases in May, showing a rise of 93 cases in two months.

“We really want to try to get these cases back under control, identify the sources, contain the spread, and get this out of the community before kids go back to school in the fall,” said Craig Jenne, a professor in the department of microbiology, immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary.

The health authority said 75 percent of the county’s cases this year are in children under 10.

Seven children, including six in the southern zone and one in central Alberta, have been hospitalized.

17 cases have been identified in the central zone, while the northern zone has seven and one case was found in the Calgary area.

AHS said one of those cases is related to the outbreak in southern Alberta.

Vaccination rates are falling

whooping cough is a bacterial infection that causes a severe cough that can last for weeks or months. According to AHS, it can lead to pneumonia and “in rare cases, seizures, brain damage and death.”

The best protection, Jenne said, is vaccination.

But data from Alberta Health shows vaccine coverage has dropped dramatically in recent years, with 58 percent of children in the Southern Zone up to date on their whooping cough vaccine doses by age two in 2022, compared to 76 percent in 2008.

The provincial average, which has also fallen, was 71 percent last year.

“Diseases like whooping cough are actually some of the most contagious diseases we’ve ever identified. And we need more than 90 percent of the community to be vaccinated to have some form of herd immunity, to protect against the spread of the virus and to limit.” said Jenne.

Vaccine coverage varies widely in the southernmost health zone, from a low of 22 percent in Forty Mile county to 79 percent in West Lethbridge.

“So at this point, we know that vaccination rates are well below that, and it was really only a matter of time before we started seeing whooping cough spread in the community.”

According to Jenne, newborns and newborns are at the highest risk of serious illness.

“Now that vaccine numbers are falling again, we as a society are unfortunately no better protected than before vaccinations. So we are still at risk. This is a disease that we hear every few years, tragically, about the loss of life,” he said.

While there have been hospitalizations, AHS said no deaths have been attributed to this outbreak.

It urges parents to ensure their children are vaccinated.

“Cases in the Southern Zone have been reported in most communities between Fort Macleod and Medicine Hat, including Brooks,” AHS spokesperson Gwen Wirth said in an emailed statement.

The health authority has been reporting for weeks that southern Alberta is experiencing community spread.

“Cases have been identified in schools and other community locations, such as churches and locations where children gather to attend classes,” Wirth said.

“Public health cannot make links between most of the recent cases, indicating that there are likely more diseases circulating in communities that go unreported.”

According to AHS, 461 cases were reported during the last major outbreak of whooping cough in the Southern Zone in 2017.