Stanley Mission Baby Dies From Whooping Cough

Stanley Mission Baby Dies From Whooping Cough

Friday, December 03, 2010 at 14:51

A five-week-old boy in Stanley Mission died earlier this week from whooping cough — but public health officials say there’s no reason for the community to panic.

The province’s deputy medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, says that’s because the community in question has an excellent immunization program.

However, Shahab says the boy was too young to be immunized, and wasn’t protected from the illness.

Dr. Abayomi Olaniyi of the Northern Inter-Tribal Health Authority says the infant’s twin sister is in ICU at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital.

Olaniyi says she was admitted in critical condition, but he doesn’t know her condition now.

Her sibling’s death on Tuesday was the second whooping cough death for Saskatchewan this year.

Shahab says all the deaths in the province in recent years have been among infants who were too young to be immunized.