Whooping cough has yet again started taking its toll on young children, this time in Auckland. A third child has got trapped in the wings of death recently, said Starship Children's Hospital's doctors.

The report said that failure to receive immunization was probably leading to increased number of whooping cough cases.

Very young children always remain at the highest risk of suffering from the deadly cough, also dubbed as pertussis. But, the vaccination levels were less as compared to the requirement for the same in actual.

Jon Lillie, intensive care doctor, said that the rate of vaccination was in dire need of being improved. One and all very young were needed to be inoculated.

The cough is deadly, since the same spreads easily through coughing or sneezing, turning devastating in some two weeks' period. The symptoms could be treated before the period.

Thus, concerned experts have been urging parents to get their children vaccinated on time. It is not possible to vaccinate children before they turn six weeks in age.

Experts have said that pregnant women should make it a priority to get the vaccination. Since, the illness in them could, otherwise, pass on to their unborn child, the report concluded.