What is whooping cough?

Whooping cough is a highly infectious respiratory disease that is caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, and is known by the medical name pertussis. When the symptoms first come on it often feels like a cold, but the cold then turns into a cough that can last for longer than three months.
It's known as whooping cough, because people with the disease have uncontrollable fits of coughing followed by vomiting, choking or gasping. It is the gasping that makes the whooping sound.
Whooping cough (pertussis) is one of the conditions for which Australian children receive vaccination as part of the national immunisation program.
Experts say immunisation protects between 80 and 90 per cent of children. So it is still possible for kids who've been immunised to catch whooping cough, however people who are immunised are likely to get a milder bout.
Babies are most at risk from complications from whooping cough. This is why some states are now offering free booster doses of whooping cough vaccine to the parents and carers of newborn babies in an effort to stop them from passing the infection onto their newborn baby.
Brisbane paediatrician Dr Bruce Lewis encourages parents of newborns to ask people who plan to visit to first ensure they are immunised against whooping cough.
"You're doing them a favour, because hopefully they won't get it [themselves] and be off work for a month or two," he says.