Dana McCaffery died on March 9, this year at just four weeks of age. The cause was whooping cough.
When Dana was 11 days old she started to be more unsettled at night, and at three weeks of age she started to cough. Testing positive for whooping cough she was admitted to Lismore Base Hospital.
Coughing uncontrollably, turning blue and requiring oxygen - she developed pneumonia and was airlifted to the intensive care unit at the Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane.Five days after being admitted to hospital Dana's conditioned worsened and lost her battle.
Dana's case is not unique. In the past year alone, three babies have died in Australia after contracting the illness.
Whooping cough is an infection of the throat caused by a bacterium called Bordetella Pertussis. Pertussis (which means 'forceful cough') is another name for whooping cough.
"Cases have increased a lot. Pertussis is alive and well in Australia," Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' spokesperson, Dr Ronald McCoy said.
"I think that H1N1 has taken the attention away from the impact of the whooping cough problem. With the swine flu outbreak, the workload has now increased and the resources are stretched," Dr McCoy said.
Latest figures from the World Health Organization indicate that there is also a global increase in Pertussis cases with 161,861 cases reported. South East Asia recorded the highest region of reported cases with 72,981 recorded followed by the European region with 28,798 cases.
A recent report by WHO shows a global decline in reported pertussis incidences in the 1980s is consistent with the overall increases in immunization coverage. World-wide annual deaths from pertussis (2002) were estimated at 294,000.
Here in Australia, Department of Health and Ageing (DHA) statistics show there are 18,013 notifications of Pertussis nationwide this year alone. This is the highest recorded number since 1991. This compares with 14,522 notifications in 2008 and 5,341 cases recorded in 2007.
This year alone NSW registered 9,462 cases - compared with 7,818 cases in 2008 - while Queensland registered 3,544 cases - compared with 2,264 cases last year.
State health officials are alarmed by the increasing cases. NSW Health has renewed its warning to adults, especially parents, to be on the look out for the symptoms.
"Whooping cough is easily spread to other people by droplets from coughing," Dr Jeremy McAnulty, NSW Health Director of Communicable Diseases said.
"Someone with whooping cough will be able to spread it to other people for up to three weeks after onset, unless they are treated with particular antibiotics. So it is important that people are treated early to stop the spread of the disease."
Queensland Minister for Health Paul Lucas has urged the federal government to establish a national response to better vaccinating adults who are in close contact with young children.
Victoria's Royal Children's Hospital paediatrician Dr Jenny Royle said the number of victims now being treated could only be described as an epidemic.
"There could not be a bigger warning than a death to make people ask questions if they are running late for vaccines," she said.
"Whooping cough is a horrible disease. My worry is that for every adult that catches whooping cough, what baby are they going to spread it to?" Dr Royle said.
Dr Ronald McCoy - who also once caught whooping cough - says it's critical that vaccinations are given to babies at two, four and six months of age.
"Anyone can get whooping cough," Dr McCoy said.
"If you look at the statistics there are actually a lot of middle-aged people, the mothers and the fathers, who are in contact with children who do have a high rate of whooping cough. It's not just children," he said.
DHA figures shows that among the total cases in Australian the two highest age brackets are 0-9yo, with a total of 5,730 and the second is 35-49yo with 3,443 cases.
"We spend lots of time setting the record straight. There are a lot of myths around the side effects of immunisation and negative side effects. Vaccine safety is very well documented," McCoy said.
"The difference between whooping cough and swine flu is that whooping cough is completely preventable disease," he said.
"People are constantly hearing about H1N1 Swine Flu making them scared and neglecting other issues which have always been there such as whooping cough. What is needed is sustained action," McCoy said.
"The difference with swine flu and whooping cough is that with the influenza, it continues to mix and match but with whooping cough it is always the same thing," he said.