Broward County has hit a little bump in the public health road, and this time it's whooping cough at a local elementary school. Country Isles Elementary School, situated at 2300 Country Isles Road in Weston, reported a case of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough. The principal, Mindy Morgan, wasted no time in informing parents of the situation through an email on Monday, cautioning that their kids may have been exposed to this highly contagious illness, as Local 10 News reported.
Whooping cough is one of those throwback diseases that you'd think had been relegated to the history books, but here we are. It's a bacterial infection that, can really pack a wallop, especially in infants who aren't fully immunized yet. Symptoms aren't exactly a walk in the park either, including severe coughing fits that can end in a whooping sound when the person breathes in. Despite the concern, some parents were less worried. "I wasn't too concerned because all my kids are vaccinated," Kiersten Bertamini told Local 10 News. Adriana Castro echoed the sentiment, "I wasn't super concerned," she said. "My girls are fully vaccinated."
Stepping up to the plate, the Florida Department of Health in Broward County will be on site at the school on Wednesday afternoon, offering a helping hand in the form of free pertussis vaccinations. From 2 to 6 p.m., they'll be there with sleeves rolled up for any family that wants to take preemptive action—with parental consent, of course. This information was detailed in a notice sent out to families, as WSVN notes.
But rest easy, the infected student hasn't set foot on campus since before Spring Break, and Country Isles Elementary hasn't reported any subsequent cases of whooping cough. School officials are keeping close tabs on the situation, working in lockstep with county health officials to keep everybody safe. This is a classic case of better safe than sorry, with the school taking measures to avoid any potential spread of the illness. After all, no one's interested in a whooping cough comeback tour, as WSVN detailed.
