Big Whoop

Via ProMED-mail: The Boston Globe reports eight more staff members at Children's Hospital in Boston have been diagnosed with whooping cough, for a total of 33 to date.

Disease investigators have said they believe whooping cough was carried into Children's by a 19-month -old patient. They continue to investigate whether a 3-year-old girl who has the illness contracted it at the hospital or before she arrived there.
Barry said the eight additional cases reported yesterday do not reflect recent infections. Instead, she said, most of those staff members began displaying symptoms in mid-October. So far, no hospital workers or patients have faced life-threatening complications as a result of the outbreak.