Whooping cough under control

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An outbreak of whooping cough at Wabasca area has finally been brought under control, says the local doctor.

However, it's been at least a month since there have been any cases of the dreaded, childhood illness, said Dr. Vishay Dunraj.

"It's definitely settled down," Dunraj said.

The outbreak had parents in the area and from the nearby Bigstone reserve concerned, he said.

"It can be very serious and even fatal, especially to kids under a year. In the past, when there was no immunization, whooping cough was one of the killer diseases among infants.

"It's very distressing, especially to parents. The children go into bouts of coughing. They go blue and vomit after the coughing," said Dunraj.

He said he gave out a lot of antibiotics to prevent the spread of the disease in the community.

While he's unaware of any fatalities, there were some severe case resulting in long stays in the hospital. A number were also sent outside the community to larger hospitals.

"We don't wait for patients to get really sick before sending them out," he said.

Dunraj said many local children he treated weren't immunized for whooping cough.

He attributed this not to parental neglect but to the child having a cold or illness at the time when the vaccines are given.

"A lot of them are immunized, but incompletely," he said.

Wabasca is located 280 km north of Edmonton.