Upfront
Whooping cough (continued from page 3)
has had approximately 60 cases confirmed by laboratory tests, Dr. Charles Weiss said. “Santa Clara County — and in particular Palo Alto — has a lot of cases. I don’t know why. One peculiar feature of the disease is that it comes back every three to five years, so the timing is right,� he said. Palo Alto High School had an outbreak in 2006, he said. The epidemic in 2010 “was the worst we had seen in 50 years,� he said. This year, it’s middle school kids who have been getting pertussis, Weiss said. The average age has been about 13. A newborn and a 90-year-old patient also contracted the disease, he said. So far there have been no severe cases, to Weiss’s knowledge. Most years, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital sees five or fewer children with pertussis. The majority of cases are under 1 year of age, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chief of the division of pediatric infectious
diseases at the Stanford School of Medicine and Packard Hospital. The severity varies. “Any infant under 3 months of age diagnosed with pertussis should be hospitalized, and this is based on an American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation. Usually, the very youngest infants, under 3 months of age, are most severely affected and can be hospitalized for some weeks,� she said in an email. Local medical providers have been focusing on preventing infants’ exposure. Infants receive a series of vaccinations (DTaP) that protect against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. A booster shot called “Tdap� is given to pregnant women, Weiss said. Fenstersheib said every pregnant woman should receive a Tdap shot at 27 to 36 weeks. The booster gives the mother protection and provides antibodies to the baby in his or her first six months of life, he said. But recent studies indicate that immunity from DTaP and from contracting pertussis wanes within a few years. The Tdap booster shot should be given at age 11, according to pub-
lic health experts. Preteens, teens and adults should receive the Tdap booster if they have not had one. So far, health officials are not recommending people get additional pertussis boosters if they’ve already had one, he said. The health department recommends that any patient who has the following symptoms be tested for pertussis: s PAROXYSMS OF COUGHING MULTIPLE coughs in a row without a pause for a breath in between coughs); or s WHOOPING SOUND MADE WHEN TAKing a breath at the end of the coughing paroxysm; or s VOMITING AFTER THE COUGHING FIT AND s NO OTHER EXPLANATION FOR SYMPtoms, such as cold-like symptoms that typically precede a cough; fever is usually absent. Any pregnant woman in her third trimester who has an acute cough illness more than five days without other explanation should be tested. Infants younger than 6 months old with pertussis might have no apparent cough, but there could be episodes when the infant’s face turns red or purple. N
PENINSULA
News Digest School district names communication coordinator Palo Alto school district Superintendent Kevin Skelly has hired the former public-information officer of the Santa Clara Unified School District to fill a new position of communications coordinator. Tabitha Kappeler-Hurley was an English teacher and vice principal at Santa Clara’s Wilcox High School before moving into the district’s publicinformation role in 2004, where she also directed career-technical education and a program to promote female participation in math and science. She will join the Palo Alto Unified School District in mid-July, reporting to Skelly at an annual salary of $129,957. Kappeler-Hurley said she views her role as making district affairs “clear and concise for everyone,� whether they be “school events, big things they’re doing, curriculum implementation or difficult things to explain. “I’ll do a lot of outreach and listening to make sure everybody’s clear on the various efforts,� she said Monday night, July 1. “As much as I can help the administrative team do that, it will be a good service.� The Palo Alto Board of Education in March allocated $150,000 to create the communications job, saying the position was needed to handle the many requests for information directed at an understaffed district office. Critics said the position was unnecessary and that district officials should speak for themselves. Palo Alto has employed a full-time communications officer in the past, but the position was eliminated in budget cuts. Santa Clara Unified is a K-12 district with an enrollment of 15,000; Palo Alto’s enrollment is 12,500. The Santa Clara district has recently suffered an exodus of the superintendent, several other top staff members and six principals amid allegations of micro-management and intimidation by school board members. N — Chris Kenrick
Palo Alto hires its first budget czar
Discover the best places to eat this week! AMERICAN
New Tung Kee Noodle House
Armadillo Willy’s
947-8888 520 Showers Drive, Mountain View www.shopmountainview.com/luunoodlemv
941-2922 1031 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos www.armadillowillys.com
INDIAN
The Old Pro
Janta Indian Restaurant
326-1446 541 Ramona Street, Palo Alto www.oldpropa.com
462-5903 369 Lytton Ave. www.jantaindianrestaurant.com
ITALIAN
Thaiphoon
Cucina Venti
323-7700 543 Emerson Ave, Palo Alto www.ThaiphoonRestaurant.com
254-1120 1390 Pear Ave, Mountain View www.cucinaventi.com CHINESE
Chef Chu’s
Read and post reviews, explore restaurant menus,
948-2696 1067 N. San Antonio Road www.chefchu.com
and more at ShopPaloAlto,
Ming’s
ShopMenloPark
856-7700 1700 Embarcadero East, Palo Alto www.mings.com
and ShopMountainView
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Palo Alto has hired its first director of the new Office of Management and Budget, the latest addition to the city’s expanding leadership team. Walter Rossmann, who most recently served as assistant budget director in San Jose, will oversee the city’s $460 million budget, officials announced Tuesday, July 2. The Office of Management and Budget is a recently created subset of the city’s Administrative Services Department, which puts Palo Alto’s budget together. The city’s pool of senior managers has been growing. Earlier this year, City Manager James Keene hired the city’s first chief communications officer, tapping Claudia Keith for the post. Other recent hires into newly created positions are Chief Information Officer Jonathan Reichental and Airport Manager Andrew J. Swanson. The city is also about to hire its first chief sustainability officer. In addition to handling the budget, Rossmann will be in charge of the city’s “performance management framework� and will “contribute to highly complex citywide initiatives and projects,� according to a statement from the city. Rossmann began his duties in mid-June with an annual salary of $172,432, according to the city’s announcement. Chief Financial Officer Lalo Perez praised Rossmann’s background in finances, which includes 15 years of budget experience in local governments, and called him “the right fit for our organization.� N — Gennady Sheyner
$151 million gift to Stanford tops all others Stanford University announced on Monday, July 1, a new gift of $151 million from Silicon Valley landowner and developer John Arrillaga, a member of Stanford’s class of 1960. The largest single gift ever from a living individual will be used over time on a wide variety of projects, university officials stated. In 2011, Robert King, a Silicon Valley investor who earned a Stanford MBA in 1960, and his wife, Dottie, donated $150 million to create the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies. King was an early investor in what became the Chinese Internet search company Baidu. Arrillaga’s new gift is the latest in a long history of contributions to Stanford from him and his family, for whom numerous campus buildings are named, including the Arrillaga Family Sports Center, the Arrillaga Center for Sports and Recreation, the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center and the Arrillaga Family Dining Commons. Arrillaga gifts also made possible other buildings that do not bear his name, including the Graduate Community Center, the Physics and Astrophysics Building, the rebuilt Stanford Stadium and other facilities to which he contributed anonymously, according to the university. Scholarships endowed by the Arrillaga family also support nearly 50 Stanford students each year. A previous Arrillaga gift of $100 million in 2006 was the university’s largest single gift from a living individual at that time. Arrillaga, who grew up in southern California, came to Stanford in 1955 on a basketball scholarship. He made his fortune, along with his business partner, Richard Peery, developing commercial real estate in Silicon Valley. N — Chris Kenrick