210 migrant workers exposed to whooping cough in Quincy, Mattawa

EPHRATA - More than 200 migrant farm workers recently came into contact with Pertussis or whooping cough, in what Grant County health officials are calling "a local outbreak."

The workers live in Mattawa and have worked in fields there and in the Quincy area, Grant County Health Department officer Dr. Alexander Brzezny stated. Only three cases have been confirmed as pertussis, but 210 people who came in contact with the illness have been treated with antibiotics to deter the spread of the communicable disease, health department spokesperson Theresa Adkinson said.

"The farm where the farm workers are being housed and the Mattawa Community Clinic have been extremely cooperative and responsive," Grant County Health Department Administrator Jefferson Ketchel stated.

Adkinson said that the agriculture products that the workers handled should not be contaminated.

"Preventing severe diseases and death in infants is our highest priority. We urge all pregnant women to get vaccinated and urge parents to vaccinate infants and children if they are not up to date," Brzezny stated.

Last year in Grant County, 56 cases of pertussis was reported to county health officials. So far this year, only 11 cases have been reported.