Whooping cough puts Ohio school on high alert

CINCINNATI, OH (KTRK) -- A high school in Cincinnati is on alert after 20 students were diagnosed with whooping cough, reports WCPO.

Thirty-five cases were reported last year in the area, according to the Cincinnati Health Department. This year, 45 cases have already surfaced so far.

So what is whooping cough? The illness known as pertussis looks like a simple cold, but it can get a lot worse, especially for infants.

But the illness, spread to 20 students at Elder High School, has the facility on high alert.

Elder High School Principal Tom Otten said, "Any student that starts coughing get them to the nurses office right away because it's really something you don't want to mess around with."

He added, "We're very vigilant and trying to pay attention to any kid that coughs. Just because we don't have any outbreaks right now or yesterday doesn't mean it's not somewhere cooking."

One of the hallmarks of whooping cough, according to Linda Giessler, the school's nurse is coughing so hard a person feels like vomiting. "That's another red flag," she said.

But you can fight back. Whooping cough, while highly contagious, is easily preventable with basic hygiene, according to Geissler.

Another important factor to remember is you could still get pertussis even if you've been vaccinated. As for the students at Elder it's still unclear how it spread to so many.

"It was all over the place," Otten said. "They weren't all friends and they all weren't from the same neighborhood. It was a real random thing."

The Cincinnati Health Department sent letters home to parents making sure families are vaccinated.