Health board fears outbreak could flare up as school returns

A whooping cough outbreak in Nelson and Marlborough, which peaked around Christmas time, could flare up again.

With children heading back to school, the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board is concerned the outbreak might spread as children mix together in groups.

Nelson Marlborough Public Health Service clinical director Dr Stephen Bridgman said while the outbreak peaked a week prior to Christmas, the number of cases might increase as children go back to school.

‘‘We are still managing a pertussis [whooping cough] outbreak in the region, and while the num- ber of notified cases has decreased from its peak of around 50 a week before Christmas to 10 to 20 cases a week currently, it is possible that cases might increase again with the start of the school year,’’ he said.

‘‘This outbreak is similar to that occurring during 2011-12, and we can expect that this current outbreak will follow a similar trend of continuing with a long ‘tail’ for sev- eral months of this year,’’ he said.

There were 266 cases of whooping cough notified in Marlborough and Nelson-Tasman between October 28, 2017 and January 26, 2018.

Of the 266 reported cases, infants and school-aged children were the most common group affected, while 15 cases occurred in infants younger than 12 months.

Bridgman said young children and infants were most vulnerable to the outbreak.

‘‘Children, and especially infants, remain at much higher risk than normal from this highly contagious, serious disease.’’

He urged parents who had chosen not to get their children immunised in the past to rethink that decision. Immunisation was free for babies and infants aged 6 weeks, 3 months and 5 months, older children aged 4 and 11-years-old and pregnant women between 28 and 38 weeks.

Whooping cough was most infectious in its first two weeks.

The symptoms usually appeared a week after infection and started out like a common cold, Bridgman said.

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