Over the Thanksgiving break, Winnetka School District 36 maintenance staff is doing “enhanced cleaning” in the schools due to whooping cough and stomach virus outbreaks.
On Nov. 3, the Tribune reported six local cases of pertussis, otherwise known as whooping cough. That number has since increased to 17, according to a message on District 36’s Web site, signed by the two interim co-superintendents.
The first six cases were reported at Carleton Washburn School. There are now 14 confirmed cases at that school, along with two at The Skokie School and one at Crow Island School, according to interim co-superintendents Ken Cull and Mark Friedman.
Whooping cough has swept through schools in the North Shore in the last six weeks, with a total of 41 cases reported across 11 schools in Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Kenilworth and Northfield, according to statistics from the Cook County Department of Public Health.
“Pertussis is a highly contagious illness that is easily transmitted through coughing and sneezing and may persist among a population for weeks to months,” according toa letter to District 36 from the County Health Department. “Symptoms of pertussis usually occur five to 10 days after exposure, but can take up to 21 days to appear. Initially symptoms are similar to a common cold: a runny nose, low-grade fever and a mild occasional cough. However, the cough can become severe and spasmodic — with a distinctive ‘whooping’ sound — and can progress to vomiting between bouts of coughing.”
Anyone diagnosed with whooping cough is requested to stay home from school, work or public gatherings for at least five days after an antibiotic treatment is started.
The message from Cull and Friedman on the district’s Web site also mentions gastrointestinal illness which is spreading around the schools.
It does not say how many students or teachers have been sick, but the symptoms are “nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, headache, and/or a low-grade fever,” the message said.
It advised parents to keep their children home from school if not feeling well and to promote “frequent and proper hand washing hygiene.”
“The child must be symptom free for 24 hours before returning to school,” the message said. “If your child has a fever 100 degrees or more he or she must be fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medications for 24 hours prior to returning to school.”
Maintenance staffs at the schools are cleaning classrooms, eating areas and bathroom surfaces daily, and were to perform “enhanced cleaning” during the Thanksgiving break, the note said.
Thanksgiving break started Nov. 24. Classes resume Nov. 29.
Whooping cough was also reported earlier this month at Highcrest Middle School, 569 Hunter Road, Wilmette, where 14 fifth-graders were diagnosed with the disease. The County Health Department visited the school and administered a vaccine to 84 students.
Anyone with questions about whooping cough can contact the Vaccine Preventable Diseases Unit at Cook County Department of Public Health at (708) 492-2150. During non-working hours, call (708) 492-2000.
