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Whooping Cough Outbreak In Pottawatomie County

Pottawatomie County in northeast Kansas is seeing an outbreak of whooping cough cases.

All schools within the Wamego School District have had free vaccination clinics for staff members. A clinic for students was held Wednesday at West Elementary, the hardest hit school in the district Pottawatomie County has had 17 confirmed cases reported. Last year, the county had just one case.

The state has 172 confirmed cases so far this year, compared to 405 cases in all of 2013.

The disease is also called pertussis, and is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection that can be prevented by vaccine.

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