Australia diphtheria – Australia is recording 230 diphtheria cases and one related adult death this year, the first surge since widespread vaccination began in the 1930s. Most infections are in Indigenous communities in remote parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia, w
For the first time since widespread diphtheria vaccination began in the 1930s, Australia is watching the disease surge again—fast enough that the numbers no longer resemble anything the country has been used to.
This year, the country has recorded 230 cases of diphtheria and one related adult death. The case counts are accelerating. with the majority of infections in Indigenous communities in remote areas of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Smaller numbers have also appeared in Queensland and South Australia. In recent years, the number of cases per year was typically zero or close to zero.
Northern Territory’s chief health officer. Paul Burgess. has said the outbreak appears to have started with a case in Queensland in 2022 that was acquired overseas. From there. he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). diphtheria crossed the border into the Northern Territory and spread among Indigenous communities there and in other states. He linked that spread to gaps in vaccination, high levels of movement between communities, and crowded housing conditions.
The problem is not only whether children are being vaccinated. In the Northern Territory, almost 92 per cent of 5-year-olds are vaccinated against diphtheria. But booster coverage tells a sharper story: no more than 67 per cent of 13-year-olds are receiving the recommended booster offered nationally through school-based programmes.
Raina MacIntyre of the University of New South Wales put it plainly: “The vaccine does wane, and boosters are needed.” She says that’s one reason many adolescents and young adults are becoming infected.
MacIntyre also pointed to another pressure building in the background. One contributing factor to sub-optimal vaccination rates is “the rise in vaccine misinformation and pushback against vaccines after the Covid-19 pandemic. ” she said. She added that shortages of nurses and doctors in remote areas may be another factor.
Diphtheria itself is not a lingering inconvenience—it is a bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae. The bacteria can infect the skin or the respiratory tract and produce diphtheria toxin. Infections can cause ulcers on the skin or a thick grey membrane in the throat that is sore and obstructs breathing. If the toxin enters the bloodstream, it can lead to heart failure or paralysis.
People can catch diphtheria through contact with an infected person’s ulcers or by breathing in their respiratory droplets. Treatments include antibiotics and an antitoxin that neutralises the diphtheria toxin, but some people still die even with these interventions.
Australia is not unfamiliar with the stakes. Before a diphtheria vaccine became available, the disease was a common cause of child deaths globally. In Australia, more than 4000 people died from diphtheria in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
This outbreak is also drawing attention beyond Australia’s borders. MacIntyre described the largest diphtheria outbreak since routine infant vaccinations began as happening in the former Soviet Union states after the bloc dissolved in 1991. Over 140. 000 cases and 5000 deaths resulted from the collapse of vaccination rollouts. showing that “large diphtheria epidemics can occur when vaccination programmes get disrupted.”.
In response, the Australian government has announced A$7.2 million (£3.8 million) in funding to contain the outbreak. Extra doctors and nurses are being deployed to affected areas to administer booster vaccines and treatments.
For Burgess, the urgency hasn’t translated into resistance so far. “Quite pleasingly, we’re seeing quite a strong community demand currently for vaccination in the context of this outbreak,” he told the ABC.
The weeks ahead will test whether that demand can be met quickly enough—especially for adolescents and young adults who may have missed booster protection, and in communities where movement, housing crowding, and healthcare shortages can turn a single imported case into something far more dangerous.
Australia diphtheria outbreak diphtheria vaccine boosters Indigenous communities Northern Territory Western Australia vaccine misinformation antibiotics antitoxin