As the State of California declared whooping cough at epidemic levels, Mariposa County Public Health Officer Dr. Charles Mosher has confirmed that two cases have been identified in Mariposa County.

Mosher made the announcement last week. They are the first cases in the county this year. California currently has four times as many cases of the disease so far than were reported last year. There have been five deaths of infants from whooping cough in California in 2010. Health officials believe that if the pace of cases keeps up, it could be the largest outbreak in the state in 50 years.

Mosher said both of the Mariposa residents infected with the disease are recovering well. “But the health department is busy following up with people who may have been exposed,” Mosher said. He did not specify the ages of the two individuals who are infected.

Anyone can become infected with whooping cough or pertussis, the scientific name for the disease. It is often mistaken for a cold or the flu and is highly contagious. Outbreaks peak in the July and August. “The peak season starts in the summer,” said Dr. Gilberto Chavez, the deputy director said Dr. Gilberto Chavez, the deputy director

of the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Infectious Disease. “And we expect to see a much larger number of cases if we don’t intervene quickly.”

Periodic outbreaks of the disease are not uncommon. Some 5,000 to 7,000 cases are reported in the United States each year. Epidemics occur every three to five years, the most recent in 2005, when there were more than 25,000 reported cases nationwide. There were 3,200 in California, where seven people died.

Children are vaccinated against the disease, but are not fully protected until six months of age. Boosters are recommended in middle school, adolescence and through adulthood as immunity diminishes over time.

The disease starts like a cold, with a runny nose or mild cough, but can progress into coughing fits that result in the disease’s tell-tale “whoop.”

The disease can last for weeks and can be very dangerous for the very young. A mother whose daughter had pertussis last year remembers the agony of having her 18-month-old daughter gasp for air every hour, every night for two months.

She said in the first stages, the little girl would chronically cough, with long pauses as she struggled for air. Later, she would cough until she vomited. “It was to the point that I thought she would never get better,” the mother said last week. “It was horrific. During the day she would look like a normal kid.”

Within weeks of finally being diagnosed and treated, the little girl got pneumonia, likely because her lungs were so weak from the bout of pertussis.

A Mariposa teen suffered through whooping cough during the last outbreak in 2005. It was weeks before the diagnosis finally came. Meanwhile, he would gasp for air several times a night, not stopping until he vomited. The disease lasted about 10 weeks.

Dr. Mosher said people should see a doctor if they have a cough that lasts more than two weeks, and ask if it could be whooping cough. They should also avoid exposing others, especially infants.

Anyone who has been exposed to a confirmed case of whooping cough should talk to his or her physician to see if preventative antibiotics are necessary. Standard procedures like covering coughs and sneezes, frequent hand washing and use of santizers are also good methods to prevent the spread of the disease. Parents should make sure their children under age 7 are current with the pertussis vaccine.