{"id":616064,"date":"2026-04-19T00:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616064\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T00:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T00:24:17","slug":"kimberley-diphtheria-rates-more-than-triple-in-a-month-after-50-year-eradication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616064\/","title":{"rendered":"Kimberley diphtheria rates more than triple in a month after 50-year eradication"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cases of the potentially fatal bacterial infection diphtheria have more than tripled in the past month in Western Australia’s far north.<\/p>\n

The WA Country Health Service said there were 27 notified cases of diphtheria in the Kimberley, and growing \u2014 compared to seven notified cases a month ago.<\/p>\n

Diphtheria is extremely rare, largely affecting low-socio economic areas with limited access to healthcare and low vaccination rates.<\/p>\n

Prior to the outbreak, diphtheria had not been detected in the Kimberley for half a century.<\/p>\n

Public health physician Gary Dowse said the reason for the outbreak was unknown but was being treated as an urgent public health issue.<\/p>\n

What is diphtheria?<\/p>\n

Diphtheria is a contagious bacterial infection spread easily between people through physical contact or respiratory droplets.<\/p>\n

There are two main types of diphtheria, respiratory (throat) and cutaneous (skin), according to Dr Dowse.<\/p>\n

\"an<\/p>\n

Gary Dowse says vaccination is the best way to prevent diphtheria.\u00a0 (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)<\/p>\n

“You get these very bad growth, or a membrane or plaque in the back of your throat covering your tonsils that can eventually obstruct your airway and stop your breathing \u2026 which is life-threatening” he said.<\/p>\n

“The other form of diphtheria are skin infections, so you get infected sores and wounds that may take a long time to heal.”<\/p>\n

Dr Dowse said the outbreak seemed to be transmitting “more readily” and for reasons the health service did not yet understand.<\/p>\n

“Diphtheria is one of those diseases that had effectively been eradicated in Australia,” he said.<\/p>\n

“In the last 12 months, cases have appeared in the Northern Territory and this year have now spread into the Kimberley so it’s somewhat unprecedented and a concern to us.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease. (ABC News: Michael Lloyd)<\/p>\n

Dr Dowse said about 75 per cent of the cases in the outbreak were skin infections and 25 per cent were the respiratory kind.<\/p>\n

There has been one life-threatening case, who was flown to Perth and received “intensive treatment”.<\/p>\n

What is being done?<\/p>\n

Vaccination remains the best form of protection.<\/p>\n

Clinicians across the Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfields are being advised to remain alert for patients presenting with suspicious skin sores, infected wounds or an upper respiratory illness.<\/p>\n

“This is not a disease most doctors have seen so we’re reminding them it does exist, it is now increasing in prevalence,” Dr Dowse said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

The WA Country Health Service is working closely with clinicians and providers to monitor the outbreak.\u00a0 (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson said a contact tracing system had been created and treatment was being provided.<\/p>\n

They said at-risk people were also being supported to get booster vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Targeted diphtheria vaccine booster programs have been rolled out in communities where cases occurred.<\/p>\n

Will it continue to spread?<\/p>\n

University of WA public health lecturer Barbara Nattabi said low vaccination rates combined with limited, poor access to healthcare created a “double whammy”.<\/p>\n

Dr Nattabi said it was likely the disease would continue to spread.<\/p>\n

“We know our communities are interconnected,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If there’s an outbreak in one, we’d expect there to be in other communities as well.”<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/p>\n

Barbara Nattabi says diphtheria is extremely rare.\u00a0 (ABC News: Elicia Kennedy)<\/p>\n

Even with antibiotic treatment, up to one in 10 people with respiratory symptoms die, with a higher mortality rate among children, according to the Australian Centre for Disease Control.<\/p>\n

Are there alternative solutions?<\/p>\n

Curtin University international health professor Jaya Dantas recommended expanding vaccinations under the National Immunisation Program.<\/p>\n

“Childhood vaccination is completely free under the scheme, but with the adult one, it’s still not,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jaya Dantas says diphtheria vaccinations should be expanded under the National Immunisation Scheme to certain cohorts.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

Other people included by the register are pregnant women and refugees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr Dantas said it should be expanded to the First Nations population, especially considering the Kimberley outbreak.<\/p>\n

“We had measles eradicated in the world, smallpox eradicated, polio eradicated, and diphtheria \u2014 but now there’s this resurgence,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cases of the potentially fatal bacterial infection diphtheria have more than tripled in the past month in Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[76049,64,63,298990,298987,298989,137,50643,41792,159773,22561,52226,4886,7277,25962,298988,45],"class_list":["post-616064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-50-years","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barbara-nattabi","tag-diphtheria","tag-gary-dowse","tag-health","tag-illness","tag-infection","tag-jaya-dantas","tag-kimberley","tag-outbreak","tag-vaccine","tag-virus","tag-wa","tag-wa-country-health-service","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}