{"id":914087,"date":"2026-10-03T01:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T01:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914087\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T01:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T01:14:13","slug":"diseases-of-the-past-like-measles-and-diphtheria-are-making-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914087\/","title":{"rendered":"Diseases of the past like measles and diphtheria are making a comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contracting a case of measles and enduring the fever, cough, sore eyes and characteristic red rash was a common part of growing up before vaccination was introduced.<\/p>\n

The disease was so rampant in Australia that anyone born before the late 1960s is thought to be immune, as it’s likely they’ve already had the disease as a child.<\/p>\n

Since then, Australia has eliminated the highly-contagious virus through a vaccination campaign and has held the status of an endemic measles-free country for more than a decade.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Vaccination helped Australia eliminate measles \u2014 but there has been a recent outbreak in SA. (Centres for Disease Control)<\/p>\n

A recent outbreak in South Australia spreading within a school community has sparked concern from health authorities<\/a>, but it’s not the only uncommon disease that has recently spiked in cases.<\/p>\n

Australia is also experiencing the largest diphtheria outbreak since records began<\/a>, with the cases predominantly among Indigenous people in outer regional and remote areas across four states and territories.<\/p>\n

So what’s happening and why?<\/p>\n

Where are measles cases coming from?<\/p>\n

The World Health Organisation declared Australia free of endemic measles in 2014<\/a>, meaning there is no ongoing local transmission within the population, although cases can still be brought in from overseas.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

After decades of effective vaccination, childhood diseases once considered to be things of the past are rebounding. (Reuters: Lucy Nicholson )<\/p>\n

South Australia’s latest outbreak was sparked by the return of a traveller who contracted the disease overseas and had since spread it to three other students and an adult in their 40s, who was hospitalised, within the Brighton Secondary School community.<\/p>\n

Contract tracing is being undertaken after the adult spent more than 24 hours at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s emergency department.<\/a><\/p>\n

The outbreak takes SA’s measles total so far this year to nine, the highest since 2016.<\/p>\n

According to SA’s Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier, it was a “disappointing” development but not altogether surprising given anti-vaccination misinformation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Professor Nicola Spurrier says she has seen children die from vaccine preventable diseases during her time as a junior registrar. (ABC News; Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

“I have seen our vaccination rates year on year since the [COVID-19] pandemic starting to drop \u2026 I see what information is being provided in other forms other than the science,” Professor Spurrier told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“In my past practice when I was a junior registrar, I’d see little ones die from these infectious diseases and it’s always been so wonderful when we’d get new vaccines.”Why is measles coming back?<\/p>\n

Adelaide University professor and epidemiologist Adrian Esterman said measles vaccine access was also a contributing factor to the sliding rates.<\/p>\n

“It’s things like parents being very busy, trouble getting to see the GP, I think it’s more things like that rather than people hesitating to get their children vaccinated,” Professor Esterman said.<\/p>\n

He said cases of measles have also been surging overseas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Canada has now lost its measles-free status, the UK has lost its measles-free status, the USA is almost certainly going to be losing it shortly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I hope we don’t lose ours, it’s not likely at the moment, but it’s something that we don’t want to see.”\"A<\/p>\n

Epidemiologist Adrian Esterman says decades ago, the diseases were regarded as “absolute killers” in Australia. (ABC News: Carl Saville)<\/p>\n

Professor Esterman said measles, diphtheria and even whooping cough, which saw a national spike in cases in 2024<\/a>, are all examples of childhood diseases which are making a comeback due to declining childhood vaccinations.<\/p>\n

“All of these various childhood diseases, they used to be absolute killers 80-100 years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Most families had large numbers of children because they knew so many would actually die during the first year.”<\/p>\n

What’s happening with the diphtheria outbreak?<\/p>\n

The latest surge of diphtheria infections \u2014 the largest outbreak in Australia since records began in 1991<\/a> \u2014 has now risen to more than 600 cases, 22 of which were in SA.<\/p>\n

Vigilance urged as diphtheria cases pass 500<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been more than 500 cases of diphtheria across Australia this year, as governments work to mitigate the largest outbreak since records began.<\/p>\n

The highly contagious bacterial infection, which affect the nose, throat, airways or the skin, is treated with antibiotics and vaccination is considered the primary line of defence against the disease.<\/p>\n

SA Health said cases have been plateauing in recent weeks as more than 4,500 vaccines have been delivered to communities in the far north and south-west.<\/p>\n

“Up in the APY Lands where we’ve had the majority of the cases, there has been really high vaccinations so we’re extremely pleased with the community’s response,” Professor Spurrier said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Contracting a case of measles and enduring the fever, cough, sore eyes and characteristic red rash was a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85237,64,63,298987,137,68245,26162,4886,481707,280707],"class_list":["post-914087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-anti-vaxxers","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-diphtheria","tag-health","tag-immunisation","tag-measles","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccine-access","tag-vaccine-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914087","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=914087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}