KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Olathe School District warned parents and guardians of students at Santa Fe Trail Middle School this week their children may have been exposed to whooping cough.
The warning went out in a note Thursday from the school district and the Johnson County Health Department's Disease Containment Program.
The district and health department stated in the note that if any students have been coughing for two weeks or longer, a parent or guardian should call their doctor and tell the doctor about possible exposure to Pertussis.
They also asked that a parent or guardian call the nurse at the middle school.
If a student has Pertussis (Whooping Cough), they will be kept out of school.
Five days of antibiotics must be completed for those with the illness and symptomatic contacts before returning to the school, the note states.
If the illness is not treated, the illness is communicable for about three weeks after the start of the illness, according to the news release. Those not treated will be kept out of school for three weeks.
Symptoms at first include a runny nose, sneezing, cough and a low-grade fever.
The note states this is the most contagious stage of whooping cough.
Irritating cough for one to two weeks.
Coughing becomes worse, with frequent, violent coughing and crowing or an inhalation whoop follows a series of coughs, according to the note.
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