LYNCHBURG, Va. (WDBJ/VDH Release) – The Central Virginia Health District (CVHD) is informing students, faculty and staff of Liberty University, other colleges in the area, and the surrounding community at large of a recent increase in reported pertussis (commonly referred to as whooping cough).

CVHD staff is working with local healthcare providers to identify and treat potential cases. They say it is important that any ill individual stay away from others to prevent the spread of the infectious disease.

According to the CVHD, the majority of recently diagnosed cases have been previously vaccinated, but you can still get pertussis if you have been vaccinated. The effectiveness of the vaccine varies and may decrease over time. This does not mean you should not get the vaccine. The current vaccine prevents illness for the majority who receive it and it also helps to prevent severe respiratory illness, hospitalizations and/or death in infants and immune compromised or elderly individuals.

The CVHD says Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by bacteria spread through the air in droplets from sneezing or coughing. The illness typically begins with “cold-like” symptoms – runny nose, sneezing, mild fever and cough. Newly infected persons are most contagious during the first two weeks of illness when cold-like symptoms are present and continues to be contagious through the third week after the onset of cough. According to the CVHD, If left untreated, infected individuals may develop a more severe respiratory illness that includes coughing fits accompanied by difficulty breathing, gagging or vomiting, or a cough that is followed by a high pitched “whooping” noise as the person tries to catch his or her breath.

The CVHD says experiencing pertussis symptoms should seek medical evaluation and avoid public or group settings. Anyone diagnosed and being treated for pertussis is reminded to take all medications as prescribed (typically 5-day course of antibiotics) and to stay at home and avoid group activities for the five days to avoid infecting others. The health department also recommends keeping infants and other high-risk individuals away from anyone with a respiratory like illness including those confirmed/suspected cases of pertussis.

According to the CVHD, the best way to prevent the spread of pertussis is by vaccinating all babies, children, teens and adults that are able to be vaccinated. Consult with a health care provider to see if another vaccine might be needed to protect against pertussis.

Like many other respiratory illnesses, including the common cold and flu, pertussis is spread by coughing and sneezing while in close contact with others, who then breathe in bacteria.

Below are ways the CVHD says to prevent the spread of pertussis:

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If you do not have a tissue, you can cough or sneeze into your upper sleeve or elbow, not your hands.

• Wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. If you do not have access to a sink with soap, alcohol-based hand sanitizers may be used.

• Do not share food, drinks, vaping products or anything that has come into contact with someone else’s saliva.

• If you’re ill, stay at home.

Copyright 2024 WDBJ. All rights reserved.

Maryland officials and environmentalists are railing against a Virginia decision that could reopen a long-closed segment of that state’s blue crab fishery.

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission voted 5-4 to repeal a prohibition on a winter dredge fishery for blue crabs, a ban that’s been in place for about 15 years. As a result, staff members at the commission will explore reestablishing a winter fishery for the species.

Historically, the winter season allowed watermen at the mouth of the Chesapeake to dredge the bay bottom, scooping up semi-dormant crabs buried beneath the mud for warmth during the coldest months of the year. The practice was halted in the 2000s as the crab population faltered.

In a statement, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz said Virginia’s decision was ill-advised and poorly timed.

“A decision of this magnitude should have only been made with the support of scientists, in close consultation with Maryland officials, and in response to a significant increase in the blue crab population,” Kurtz wrote.

“It’s a bad day if you care about blue crabs.”

The latest blue crab survey from this winter found blue crab abundance held fairly steady in the Chesapeake Bay relative to 2023, but the number was still below average. Continued low numbers of juvenile crabs have prompted concern, and the number of female crabs in the bay this winter (estimated at 133 million) was below a target of 196 million crabs.

Staff members of the Virginia commission recommended against reopening the winter season. In a presentation, they highlighted that during the 1998–1999 winter dredge harvest in Virginia, harvesters removed about 32% of the total female crabs estimated to be in the Bay when the season began. About 96% of the crabs caught during that winter season were female.

Maintaining the stock of female crabs is considered critical to the species’ longevity, and much of the fishing regulations focus on protecting them. The first-ever bushel limits for male crabs came in 2022, after worrisome survey results for the species. The 2022 survey estimated the lowest number of blue crabs in the Chesapeake in any one year since the effort began in 1990.

Environmental groups opposed to the winter season, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, argue that although the crab numbers have rebounded since then, the population remains too shaky to give more leeway to harvesters.

Zach Widgeon, a spokesman for the commission, called its decision “very preliminary,” since it does not actually establish the winter fishery, adding that it isn’t time to sound any alarms.

The vote allows commission staff to explore the viability of a winter fishery that could begin as soon as this winter, if approved. At the commission’s next meeting in September, the staff members will present their findings, Widgeon said.

It’s very likely that, if a winter fishery is reestablished, it will differ from the winter seasons 15 years ago, Widgeon said. Historically, the dredge season ran from Dec. 1 to March 31, but it could be shorter this time around. Some stakeholders have suggested a January-February season, Widgeon said, to help sustain crab-picking houses during the winter.

“This is not the winter dredge that it was in 2008,” Widgeon said.

It’s also likely that a dredge season will include fewer participants, meaning it would not remove as many crabs as the 1998 season, Widgeon said.

“While this historical data is useful in evaluating the full scale of effort during the historical winter dredge fishery, current viability will be determined using current data and harvest targets in line with bay-wide management goals,” Widgeon wrote in an email.

Even so, the prospect of reopening the winter dredge harvest for blue crabs has attracted concern. Of the 186 individuals and groups that shared comments with the commission about the idea, all 186 were against it.

In 2008, when the Chesapeake Bay blue crab came under a federal fishery disaster declaration due to dire population numbers, Virginia’s winter dredge fishery was seen as “one of the biggest culprits” to remove to help the species recover, said Allison Colden, Maryland executive director of the bay foundation, which also released a statement condemning Virginia’s decision.

Reinstating the season now, with the blue crab stock unsteady again, seems like a poor decision, Colden said.

“Based on all the information we had going into today’s meeting, it was entirely expected and logical that this would not move forward, considering all of the recommendations and sentiments against it,” Colden said.

The decision is also poorly timed, argued Kurtz in his statement, because officials are beginning a comprehensive stock assessment for the blue crab. It will explore the reasons for lower-than-hoped juvenile and female numbers, and evaluate new environmental stressors such as warming waters and ravenous invasive blue catfish.

“The success of the species’ recovery after a steep decline in the 2000s can be directly traced to Maryland and Virginia cooperatively managing blue crabs, especially females, based on science,” Kurtz wrote.

2024 Baltimore Sun. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

SALEM, Va. (WFXR) — It is a happy homecoming for Roanoke native and current assistant Virginia Tech women’s basketball coach Jen Hoover.

Hoover, a William Byrd grad and Wake Forest head coach, has made her way back to the area and to the ACC. She is now working alongside new head coach Megan Duffy. This opportunity Hoover says is one that’s an incredible honor and couldn’t be more happy to be home.

“A chance to come back to home, but to come back to the ACC and come back to a program such a rich and tradition and with a fan base that is just so excited about women’s basketball. Our players, we’ve been out with our players a couple of times in the last month and every time we go somewhere people are taking pictures or asking for an autograph, mostly pictures. And you know, they talk whether it’s students or whether it’s older people in the community, younger people in the community. And you just don’t have that a lot of places. I’ve been a lot of really amazing places and programs, and this is by far the first time I’ve experienced that and that special. And so we’re excited to kind of build something and get everyone on board and just make it, you know, take it to another level,” said Hoover.

Both Hoover and Duffy bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Virginia Tech women’s basketball program.