The Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) is urging residents to make sure they get vaccinated against whooping cough due to an increase in whooping cough cases in the region. The EOHU issued the warning on Friday.
Speaking with CBC, Dr. Paul Roumeliotis, EOHU's medical officer of health, said seeing so many cases made the team want to “sound the alarm.”
He said 280 cases have been reported in Ontario this year, compared with 190 at the same time last year, and six of the cases occurred within the past week.
Ottawa Public Health said in a statement that eight cases of whooping cough have been reported in the city, more than in all of 2023 but still below the annual average of 27 cases pre-pandemic.
Quebec and New Brunswick are also dealing with a rise in whooping cough cases this month.
Dr. Jane Liddle, a local pediatrician and lecturer at the University of Ottawa, is among the doctors urging people to check their immunization records.
“If you have very mild whooping cough, you're probably OK. The problem is that you can still spread whooping cough to other people who are very susceptible, like infants, older people or people with chronic illnesses.”
Roumeliotis said most of the whooping cough cases in eastern Ontario occur among unvaccinated people.
