Almost three dozen Adams Elementary School students are staying home from school due to an outbreak of whooping cough.
The Register Guard reports that Adams is one of eight schools in Eugene and Springfield to experience whooping cough outbreaks this spring. On Tuesday, Lane County health officials contacted 35 Adams’ families to let them know their children are not allowed on campus during the outbreak because they don’t meet immunization requirements against the highly contagious respiratory disease.
Lane County Public Health spokesman Jason Davis tells the Guard that “it’s been the worst pertussis season in five years in the county and that ‘we are absolutely not out of the clear yet.’”
So far, the county has investigated 142 whooping cough cases. Positive lab tests have been returned in 108 of those. Usually, 20 confirmed cases are reported in the county in a typical year.
