Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, has been confirmed in counties neighboring Washington County. Lynn Fisher with Washington County Public Health says it has not been reported in Washington County yet and the subsets of society reporting whooping cough had not been vaccinated.

Symptoms include a dry cough, runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing and a mild fever. Fisher explains there is a series of six shots for the vaccine. It takes about nine days for someone infected with pertussis to start to show symptoms and it can lead to pneumonia. Pertussis is caused by breathing in the bacteria that is carried on droplets from other people’s sneezes and coughs.