The Five Hills Health Region is asking the public to make sure they are up to date with their immunizations, as a case of whooping cough or pertussis has been confirmed in young child.

Medical Health Officer Dr. Mark Vooght, said if you are up to date with you vaccines your not completely immune but it definitely can make a substantial difference, especially in younger children.

"If you're a very young child, especially one that has not been immunized... then the person can become septic and it can be fatal so we do see that from time to time. It's very easily preventable by having everyone adequately vaccinated."

Vooght explained pregnant women should receive a vaccination after 26 weeks of pregnancy, as a child can not receive the shot until two months after they are born, reducing the risk of new borns catching pertussis.

Vooght also mentioned they see sporadic activity in regards to pertussis roughly every 4-5 years in our health region and it can be more common in areas that see low vaccination rates.  According to numbers from a December 2015 report highlighting Childhood Immunization Coverage Statistics for 2 and 7 year old children, 74.6% of 2 year olds in the FHHR had received the vaccine while 77.2% of 7 year olds had been immunized.