WESTON, FLA. (WSVN) - - The Florida Department of Health is hosting a vaccine drive after a Broward County student was diagnosed with whooping cough— a highly contagious respiratory illness.
In a notice sent to families on Monday, school officials at Country Isles Elementary School in Weston said a student tested positive for Pertussis, also known as whooping cough.
Officials said the child that was infected has not been on campus since before Spring Break, and no additional cases have been reported.
7News spoke with multiple parents to get their reactions to the news.
Parents of children attending the elementary school said the were pleased with the swift action and measures the school is taking to ensure the well-being of students of staff, but most said they were not too worried about the illness.
“Well, they were reactive right away; the minute they got the information, we got reached out to basically through all the different channels. So I think they’re on top of it,” said parent Vita. “Vaccinated or not, everybody might get it at one point. So as long as you’re vaccinated, basically, you’ll get mild symptoms.”
“They’re already vaccinated. So, I don’t think I’m so much concerned about it,” said parent Yoshida
“I think the school’s doing a good job, so for now I’m not nervous,” said parent Suzie.
Others, however, expressed a little more concern.
“My son told me about it,” Chao Ma, another parent, told 7News.
“Are you nervous at all about your son getting it?” asked 7News reporter Dannielle Garcia.
“Yes. Absolutely, yes,” he replied.
Whooping cough, particularly dangerous for infants, is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection that is easily preventable by vaccines. The respiratory illness can develop into full-body coughing fits, causing the person to make a whooping sound when trying to catch their breath, hence the name.
In the past six months, two infants from Louisiana have died from exposure.
This isn’t the first vaccine-preventable disease that’s triggered the Department of Health to offer vaccine drives in South Florida; earlier this year, a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High was diagnosed with measles.
Although there has not been an outbreak in South Florida, there has been a rise in preventable diseases throughout the country.
“We shouldn’t be having three deaths with 600 cases; that would probably equal out to 3,000 cases,” said Dr. Amesh Adalia with John Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Three unvaccinated people have died in 2025 so far.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted after visiting the family of a child in Texas who died from measles:
“The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine. I’ve spoken to Governor Abbott, and I’ve offered HHS’s continued support. At his request, we have redeployed CDC teams to Texas. We will continue to follow Texas’ lead and to offer similar resources to other affected jurisdictions.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long been a critic of vaccines.
“The CDC in the past has not done a good job at quantifying the risk of vaccines,” he said in a FOX interview. “The best thing that Americans can do is to keep themselves healthy. It’s very, very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person.”
Broward County health officials will be on-site at the school on Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m., offering free and voluntary pertussis vaccinations to interested families with parental consent.
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