Prepared from public data by Charles Simmins
In the United States, the federal level public health authority rests with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). There is a list of diseases which the health departments of the various states are required to report to the CDC. One of them is whooping cough, medically known as pertussis.
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) declared pertussis epidemic in that state on June 23, 2010. They reported a total of 910 cases of whooping cough in the state through June 15, 2010, around a 400% increase over the same period in 2009.
The CDPH reported on June 30, 2010, a total of 1,337 cases of whooping cough in California through that date. That represents a 500% increase over 2009.
The California Department of Public Health is not reporting all its cases of pertussis to the CDC. The CDC publishes a weekly report titled Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Each week, the number of cases of pertussis reported by California appears, with a year to date total and a total for 2009 year to date. The year to date totals reflect all cases reported, including those in supplementary reports which do not appear in the weekly numbers.
June 15, 2010 corresponds roughly to the Week 23 MMWR report. On its website, CDPH reported 910 cases of whooping cough. The MMWR report shows a year to date total for California of 312 cases.
The June 30, 2010 report on the California Department of Public Health website states 1,337 cases of whooping cough in the state through that data. That corresponds to the Week 26 MMWR, where California is shown to have 638 cases of pertussis.
Inquiries made to the CDC resulted in this e-mailed reply on July 7:
California has retracted what they said earlier and now they are saying that it’s taking a long time to enter all of the pertussis cases into their system in order to send them to the CDC. They said that we should be getting all of the remaining cases very soon.
California, Texas and Ohio are the only three states reporting more than 500 cases of pertussis through the Week 26 MMWR. Only California has declared an epidemic.
New York State has registered a 141% increase in cases of whooping cough from 2009. 174 cases are reported, in the Week 26 MMWR, from upstate New York and 24 cases in New York City. Onondaga County and the Syracuse area are reported to have 36 cases of pertussis on record for 2010.
Reporting to the CDC provides critical data to public health experts on the national level. The ability to react to an illness on a national level is affected when the data is not reported in a timely manner or not reported at all. California's lack of compliance in accurately reporting the epidemic of whooping cough in that state is troubling.
Comments
Who is required to report cases at the state or even the county level? Is it the patient/guardian? Health professional? School/place of employment? All of the above?
The counties have a mess of paperwork to do for the state. The actual data sent by the state to the CDC is not as large. California has adopted the policy of waiting for all the paperwork before updating the CDC.
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