From CBC.ca
Southern Manitoba is experiencing an outbreak of the highly-contagious and possibly-fatal whooping cough.
About three patients have already been hospitalized, according to the province's medical officer of health for vaccines, Dr. Tim Hilderman.
He said the southern regional health authority has recorded 40 cases compared to the usual five or six at this time of year. Normally, there are just 10 in the entire year, he said.
Twenty of the current cases are children under the age of five. Ten more are people between the ages of five and 14, while the rest around closer to, or older than, 18.
"In the southern RHA we started to see an uptick in pertussis cases, whooping cough, back in August … [but] we aren't seeing it anywhere else in the province," Hilderman said, adding the last outbreak was in 2012.
Hilderman attributes the spike in the cough to parents who don't immunize their children and said he wouldn't be surprised if more cases are diagnosed.
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