STDs, hepatitis and whooping cough top list of communicable diseases by Pamela Manson The Salt Lake Tribune Published Feb 28, 2013 11:21AM MDT Clearfield • Communicable diseases reported in Davis County increased by 27 percent last year, a rise caused in part by an outbreak of whooping cough, according to health officials. “Our rate just exploded there,” Brian Hatch, director of Davis County Health Department’s Communicable Disease & Epidemiology Division, said of the 456 percent jump in incidences of the highly contagious disease, officially called pertussis. Sexually transmitted diseases and cryptosporidiosis, a gastrointestinal il... Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune.