Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND- Barton County is just a few days away from officially being taken off the list of counties that are considered to have an outbreak of Pertussis or Whooping Cough.
According to Barton County Health Director Shelly Schneider, 42 days have to pass without a confirmed case of Pertussis in order to be taken off the list.
“The only thing that might throw it off is the active cases in Reno County,” she said.
“Barton County people travel frequently to or through Hutchinson, so we still run the risk of having a confirmed case.”
The first case of Pertussis in Barton County was confirmed in late December.
That outbreak led to efforts to contain the illness with the help of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Schneider says lessons learned during the outbreak led KDHE, with input from the Barton County Health Department, to review their investigation guidelines and what is and is not possible.
“When you look at whether it is possible to contact 300 people for example in a congregation,” it’s very difficult, she said.
“We did get to have an epidemiologist come out and help us with this work for a day. They saw first hand that this is not just a computer and some paper but there a lot of people involved and it affects everybody,” Schneider said.
The good news from the outbreak according to Schneider was the large number of people who received the DTap combination vaccine and or the booster.