Whooping cough outbreak strikes north

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A losing battle is being fought in Northern Alberta against an outbreak of whooping cough.

One of the hardest hit areas is the Gift Lake Metis Settlement.

Community health nurse Cheryl Brace-Beaudry, who has been traveling regularly to the settlement in the fight against the outbreak, said the settlement accounts for two-thirds of the recent cases in her area.

The outbreak started about mid-November. Coming as it did so near Christmas was untimely since the increased visiting associated with the season aided the spread of the disease.

"It's multiplied lots," she said in a telephone interview from her High Prairie office.

"We've got quite a few cases up there and it's spread to Grouard as well as High Prairie now. It makes roughly around 30 cases in the area," she said.

"We're trying to keep on top of it. It means a lot of follow-up on our part.

"It's quite high in comparison to previous years," said Bryce-Beaudry, who is also the coordinator of community health nurses for High Prairie and Falher.

She said cases have also been reported at Falher, Fairview, Manning, Grimshaw and Peace River. "It just seems to be multiplying."

"We get one fire put out and another starts up," said Dr. John Waters, provincial director of communicable disease control, commenting on the northern outbreak which started in the worst year for whooping cough in the province since the mid-1960s.

"It's more of a problem with remote communities where there's more crowding and a lot of extended families and lot of contact between young kids.

"In some of the more northern communities, the conditions for spreading are just a little better than they are in urban areas," he said.

"The increasing incidence of a potentially serious disease for infants, which is also potentially preventable is, if not alarming, is at least cause for concern," he said.

"It's important when whooping cough does occur in community that vigorous measures to bring the outbreak under control are instituted as quickly as possible," said Waters

"The worst hit communities have been areas where there are relatively large Indian and Metis populations," he said.

Waters said the number of reported cases for whooping cough for the province for 1989 would be close to 500. There were 149 cases in 1998. There were only 33 cases in Alberta in 1984.

Brace-Beaudry said that her area has had very few cases in years prior to the most recent outbreak, which has seen some "very very ill" infants hospitalized.

"The ones, who suffer most, are under a year (old)."

But the outbreak has affected all age groups, she said, noting a few adults have come down with the illness.

"Immunization is the best way to protect your children under seven against whooping cough. It offers at least 85 per cent protection," she said.

Special immunization clinics have been held and the immunization schedule has been advanced to help fight the outbreak.

"Instead of (vaccination at) two, four and six months, we have gone to two, three and four months," said Bryce-Beaudry.

"We really recommend parents get their children in for immunization and if they're not sure, call the health unit to find out if their children need immunization."

Having a community health worker on the settlement would be of assistance to the health unit in following up the cases, she said, noting many settlement residents don't have a telephone.

Gift Lake, which is located 40 kilometers northeast of High Prairie, has a population of about 750 people.