Rockland Health Officials Track Whooping Cough Cases: Report

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — Rockland County health officials are tracking whooping cough cases, because there are 12 cases currently in the county, far more than elsewhere in the Hudson Valley, The Journal News reported.

So far in 2022 the county has seen 25 cases of pertussis, a respiratory infection with a distinct, high-pitched cough that is particularly dangerous to babies, TJN reported.

Speaking at a recent Rockland County Board of Health meeting, Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Ruppert said "here we go again," the paper reported. Rockland, which has low childhood vaccination rates compared to most of New York State, had a measles outbreak in 2018-19 that sickened more than 300 people; and in mid-2022 a young adult resident who had never been vaccinated against polio caught the virus and was permanently paralyzed.

Read the entire report on lohud.com.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn't help, because routine childhood vaccinations were disrupted during the shutdown, Ruppert has said.

According to the New York Health Foundation:

There was substantial variation in early childhood vaccination coverage across counties in New York State, with more than half of counties having rates below the State’s Prevention Agenda goal of 70.5%. The 2020 coverage rate in the county with the lowest rate, Rockland, was approximately half as high as the county with the highest rate, Livingston (42% compared with 82%).

The lowest regional rates of early childhood vaccination coverage were consistently found in the Lower Hudson and Long Island regions (in 2020, 54% and 59%, respectively).

Children attending day care and pre-K through 12th grade in New York State must receive all required doses of vaccines on the recommended schedule in order to attend or remain in school. This is true unless they have a valid medical exemption to immunization. A medical exemption is allowed when a child has a medical condition that prevents them from receiving a vaccine. There are no nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine requirements in New York. This includes all public, private, and religious schools.

Click here for the state's recommended childhood vaccination schedule.