Crestwood School District Student in Pennsylvania Has Contracted Whooping Cough

Crestwood School District Student in Pennsylvania Has Contracted Whooping Cough
Nurse Susan Peel gives a whooping cough vaccination to a student at Inderkum High School in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 19, 2011. Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
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Pennsylvania officials have confirmed that a student in the Crestwood School District has contracted the highly contagious whooping cough.

Another student has shown symptoms of the disease, medically known as pertussis.

But Assistant to the Superintendent Brian Waite refused to identify which school or schools the two students attend, reported the Wilkes Barre Times-Leader.

Waite sent a letter to parents in the district alerting them to the disease’s presence. Whooping cough spreads through the air when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Symptoms include a long series of coughs following by a whooping noise. 

An empty bottle of Tetanus, Diphthera, and Pertussis, (whooping cough) vaccine in Sacramento, Calif., in September, 2011. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP photo)
An empty bottle of Tetanus, Diphthera, and Pertussis, (whooping cough) vaccine in Sacramento, Calif., in September, 2011. Rich Pedroncelli/AP photo