article_snippet.sent: However, although whooping cough is less severe in adults, infected adults do pose a serious risk for infants and children who are not vaccinated.
article_snippet.sent: If you haven't been immunised against whooping cough (pertussis) please consider getting it done. '
article_snippet.sent: Infectious Diseases Expert at ANU Medical School Canberra, Sanjaya Senanayake, told Daily Mail Australia: 'From my point of view immunisation is wonderful particularly for whooping cough.'
article_snippet.sent: Dr Jeannette Young explained infants are 'at a high risk of dying if infants get infected' and that the death rate from whooping cough in infants under 6 months of age is about 1 per cent. '
article_snippet.sent: Whooping cough is lethal in babies and in adults people can be absent from work for the persistent cough, it's a nasty infection.'
article_snippet.sent: Whooping cough (also known as 'pertussis') is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the lungs and airways.
article_snippet.sent: The government health website says the disease is 'highly infectious and most serious in babies under the age of 12 months'.
article_snippet.sent: Babies are at greatest risk of infection until Babies can have at least two doses of the vaccine (minimum 4 months old) as the mother's antibodies do not provide reliable protection.
article_snippet.sent: It's very rare for children who have been immunised against whooping cough to get the disease –
article_snippet.sent: and if children who have been immunised against whooping cough to get the disease – do, it's usually not as serious.
highlights_snippet.sent: Whooping cough is 'highly infectious' and lethal in babies .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Immunisation against Whooping cough is available for children from two months old .