A recent whooping cough outbreak is over according to Alberta Health Services. The outbreak was declared over in an announcement last Wednesday, and the infection levels for this specific disease are now at normal levels are are no longer considered higher than normal. The outbreak was first declared in the Northern Zone in August of 2015. According to AHS senior medical officer of health Dr. Gerry Predy “In the last month or so, we really haven’t seen too much activity.” In 2015 AHS reported 225 confirmed cases identified as whooping cough, and this is a big increase over the levels of this disease in 2014. In 2014 only 42 cases of whooping cough were confirmed in the same region so the increase for 2015 is substantial. Medical professionals suspect that the actual number of cases in recent years have been higher than reported because many people who were infected did not seek medical attention for their symptoms.
According to Dr. Predy vaccination is still very important even though Alberta Health Services has declared the whooping cough outbreak is over. Dr. Predy explained “It’s always around, and outbreaks do occur from time to time. You want to make sure your kids are protected.” A top official at AHS blamed the latest outbreak on low vaccination rates. Dr. Albert de Villiers, an AHS medical officer of health, stated in an interview in 2015 after the outbreak started that “The big reason behind it is because people don’t immunize as much as they should. About 90 per cent of the cases in kids were kids that were not completely immunized, or were not immunized at all.”
