Whooping cough cases confirmed in NC

GRAHAM, N.C. (AP) - Alamance County health officials are contacting parents and employees at one elementary school who had contact with three students now diagnosed with whooping cough.

Officials say they got the first report of a student with the ailment on Dec. 21, and their investigation subsequently found two more cases at B. Everett Jordan Elementary School in Graham.

School and health officials are contacting people who had direct contact with the students to offer preventive antibiotics.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, is a bacterial infection with cold-like symptoms and fits of coughing that can leave patients fighting for air. It's occasionally fatal for infants, but rarely results in hospitalization for school-age children or adults.

The once-common sickness was dramatically reduced by vaccinations starting in the 1940s, but has since made a comeback.