Tessie Pollock, with the Ohio Department of Health, says that’s to be expected because pertussis cases are known to fluctuate from year to year.
Pollack says there have been 828 confirmed cases of pertussis in Ohio this year. That’s up a bit from last year, but is down by more than 50 percent from 2010, when there were nearly 19-hundred cases.
She says the best way to protect against whooping cough is a vaccination. Children are most at risk, but those who spend a lot of time around kids should also make sure they’re protected.
Nationally, there have been around 40-thousand confirmed cases of whooping cough, the most since 1959.
