Wakaw is part of a cluster of communities near Saskatoon where whooping cough has been detected.
There have been 25 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, all centred around Rosthern.
“Some of these communities have a relatively low immunization coverage when it comes for whooping cough vaccine,” said Dr. Simon Kapaj, a medical health officer with the Saskatoon Health Authority. “Half of these cases that have been confirmed are young children less than five years of age. Of them, one child is less than two months old.”
All of the cases were confirmed by the provincial lab. The families and social circles of those infected by been notified by the health authority.
Whooping cough, a highly contagious infection of the lungs and throat, is caused by bordetella pertussis bacteria. It spreads through droplets produced by the coughing. Young children who have not been immunized get sicker than older children and adults.
The disease starts like a common cold with symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, mild fever and a mild cough. In the next week or two, the cough becomes worse, leading to severe coughing spells that often end with a whooping sound before the next breath, especially in young children. Older people may not make the whooping sound.
In total, whooping cough lasts for approximately 12 weeks.
The disease is treated by antibiotics. Doing that during the early stages of the disease reduces its spread.
There are vaccines that stop the spread of the disease that can be taken by infants and adults. It’s highly recommended that pregnant women take a vaccine to pass on antibodies to their child that will help protect them for the first two months of their life.
Kapaj said when more people are immunized, the population at large is safer from the disease.
“It becomes a problem, it becomes a fire, when people that surround that individual, they get sick because they are not protected and then the domino effect starts because one individual can transmit to the others.”
