HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -
Over the past few days, six cases of whooping cough have been confirmed at Madison County schools. These additional cases have officially put the County in outbreak status.
Doctors say that parents can catch this contagious cough too.
Suzanne Hyatt was diagnosed with whooping cough a year ago.
"The cough, if you've ever heard it, it's almost like a bark," Hyatt said. "It's so deep and really painful."
Hyatt said the sickness kept her up at night and took more than a week to get over.
"This was a deep cough that hurt," Hyatt said. "It hurt to cough, like your ribs were cracking. I knew it was something different and I had to go to the doctor."
Dr. Tim Howard told WAFF 48 some grown-ups easily mistake the early stages of the whooping cough with other illnesses; Hyatt did.
"You see, early on the first one or two weeks you typically have a low grade fever, a mild cough and then you have a runny nose, so yeah it looks a lot like a cold or early flu," Howard said.
"Grown-ups need to be immunized properly, which is every 10 years after the first five doses so there are boosters every 10 years. If they haven't been immunized, it would be a great time to get it done."
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