A remote Aboriginal community at the centre of the Northern Territory\u2019s diphtheria outbreak is struggling to cope with rising case numbers, with locals saying there is no hand sanitiser at the health clinic and limited information about how to avoid the disease or what to do if you test positive.<\/p>\n
There have been more than 240 cases of the once-eradicated disease reported in Australia since October, primarily in remote Indigenous communities in the NT, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia<\/a>, according to data released by the Australian Centre for Disease Control. One of the largest clusters in the NT is in Yuendumu, a community of about 700 people 300km from Alice Springs.<\/p>\n Yuendumu has a health clinic and community health centre but several locals have told Guardian Australia that the health clinic is often in an \u201cunsanitary\u201d state, with no hand sanitiser available. Despite the Territory government providing resources in several Indigenous languages, including Warlpiri, the language spoken in Yuendumu, locals say there is limited understanding about the disease in the community and little visibility of public health information.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n Warlpiri man Eugene Penhall told Guardian Australia that locals were frustrated with the lack of information, particularly information that was applicable to daily life in a community where housing is overcrowded and living standards are poor<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe thing about this outbreak is that we\u2019ve never been told what it is,\u201d Penhall said. \u201cHow we live as Aboriginal people, we have 10 people in one house. They could be carrying this thing that we don\u2019t even know about and it\u2019s really, really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Penhall said he was only made aware of the outbreak when he went to the health clinic on another matter. \u201cThey ended up telling me about the vaccine, so I had to take it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just give me the vaccine and told me about this new thing [diphtheria] and I don\u2019t even know what this thing does \u2026 I asked if this was like Covid but with this one, we\u2019ve never been told to do anything. We\u2019ve been living close to one another, walking around and doing normal stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Another local, Warlpiri man Ryan Woods, said the Royal Flying Doctor service has been flying into the community daily, compared to the weekly visits before the outbreak.<\/p>\n Woods said relatives living at his house had been infected with diphtheria, but that he was not staying there. He said there had been \u201cno information on how we can stay away from it\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no hand sanitiser anywhere. I\u2019ve seen people go to the clinic, wait one hour and then leave because no one is looking to help them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n