If the immunisation cynics witnessed a child suffering whooping cough, then attitudes could change.

That's the opinion of Dr Hugh Lees, paediatrician at Tauranga Hospital, who has frequently seen cases of whooping cough in his wards.

Dr Hugh Lees with Sarah Johnson and her 12-week-old daughter Evelyn. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

And as a father, a grandfather and a doctor, he finds it distressing.

He says 'doctors feel relatively impotent” because the condition just has to run its course for six weeks to three months. That's why the Chinese call it 'the hundred day cough”.

Two Tauranga children were so badly affected by whooping cough this year they ended up at Starship Children's Health in Auckland.

The only treatment for whooping cough is supportive, so Dr Lees says immunisation is by far the best way to protect against it.

And while there are deaths, the aim of immunisation is not just the prevention of death, it's also the prevention of serious illness and stress.