"Whooping cough outbreak is imminent."

Watch the full news report here, post continues after the video:

So, what's going on? What's with the increase? Adults not getting their boosters and too many parents opting to not vaccinate their children.

Dr Michael Levick, chairman of the Australian Medical Association Victoria's section of general practice says, "No vaccine is 100 per cent effective and with whooping cough, many adults have been immunised as a baby, child and teenager, but by the time they are 25, 35 and 45, they need a booster. The more adults that have the immunisation, the less chance of the bacteria spreading; it’s what we call herd immunity."

Dr Levick's colleague, AMA NSW President, Dr Saxon Smith echoes him and highlights that the most at-risk from the decreased immunisation levels are newborns, who aren't protected at all for their first two months and aren't protected fully for their first six months (but still get many adults visiting them during that time).

Read more: “I’ve seen what happens when you don’t vaccinate your child.”

"It’s especially important that we, as a community, ensure we have high levels of immunisation against whooping cough, because it can kill babies. If everyone in a community around an unvaccinated baby is immunised against whooping cough, it significantly lowers the risk the baby will ever come into contact with whooping cough."

Even baby guru midwife Cath is outraged with the low immunisation rate taking to Instagram to share the message.

This is what whooping cough looks like. It's sounds worse. It's horrific holding a baby struggling to breathe. Immunisation- just do it for the sake of your babies. If you want to read information read the history books about diseases and how through science we prevented them. They are now coming back as we are not immunising the herd.

Since the case of Riley Hughes, states across the country have implemented free vaccines for women in their third trimester in a bid to offer newborns some protection against whooping cough.

In some positive news, Perth Now reports that since the Light for Riley campaign started, 3,904 pregnant women in Western Australia have received the whooping cough vaccine since the free program started in March 2015. Paul Effler, Health Department communicable diseases medical co-ordinator, says that the figure accounts for 62 per cent of all pregnant women eligible.

Let's hope that the rest of the community jumps on board the whooping cough vaccine bus to protect those who can't get vaccinated and are at risk, like newborn babies.

Have you had your booster shot?

Save the Date to Vaccinate is an initiative from NSW Health to remind parents of the importance of on-time vaccinations for children from birth to 4 years of age.

On-time vaccinations help protect children from serious diseases at the most vulnerable time of life.

You can download the free ‘Save the Date’ phone app for personalised schedules, and handy reminders.  Visit www.immunisation.health.nsw.gov.au

Want more? Try:

“My son has whooping cough because of anti-vaxxers.”

This is what it’s like when your baby has whooping cough.