REDMOND, OR -- Recent exposure to Pertussis, also called "Whooping Cough," in Redmond schools is concerning health officials. Jenny O’Keefe says her 13-year-old daughter tested positive last week. She tells KBND News that she originally thought it was just a cold, "So, finally, after about a month, realizing it wasn’t going away and thinking maybe the virus had morphed into mono or something else, because her energy level had tanked. She came back negative for mono and they tested for Whooping Cough; and, sure enough.” 

Deschutes County Public Health says Pertussis starts as a "mild upper respiratory infection" and resembles a common cold, often with sneezing, low-grade fever and mild cough. Within two weeks, the cough becomes more severe and is characterized by "episodes of numerous rapid coughs followed by a crowing of a high-pitched whooping sound and is sometimes followed by vomiting." O'Keefe says her daughter was exhausted by the illness, "She coughed and coughed until all of the air was just expelled from her lungs, to a point where she would gag and throw up. She would get really scared; her eyes would be watering, you could tell she couldn’t breathe. The physical toll that that level of coughing takes on her body, she would just end up like a rag doll." After antibiotics, the teen is now on the mend. O’Keefe’s older daughter was also sick and may have had the virus, although the 16-year-old wasn’t tested.