Diphtheria Outbreak in Yuendumu: Community Feels Ignored by NT Government

Service providers and residents in Yuendumu say despite growing diphtheria case numbers in the remote community in recent weeks, it has felt like the Northern Territory government "doesn't care".

Diphtheria, a disease that is vaccine-preventable, has been spreading through remote Indigenous communities for weeks, with at least 242 cases reported so far this year across the NT, SA, Queensland and WA, according to Australian Centre for Disease Control data.

Last week, the NT government came under fire for a lack of public information and communication since the outbreak began.

In Yuendumu, community members have told the ABC there are about 30 confirmed cases of diphtheria — just over one-fifth of the nearly 146 total cases in the NT — however, the health department has not responded to multiple requests to confirm case numbers.

While some residents say the vaccine rollout in the community has been thorough and efforts have ramped up in recent weeks, with health services undertaking doorknocking and other initiatives, others say there should be clearer information available.

Southern Tanami Kurdiji Indigenous Corporation (STKIC) programs coordinator Julie Watson said the lack of NT government support to get the message out about diphtheria had been "disgraceful".

"I've certainly noticed that there's been absolutely no information, not only provided to local Aboriginal people, but there's been nothing given to service providers either," she said.

Ms Watson said she first heard of a diphtheria outbreak in Yuendumu about three weeks ago, but there was little information from authorities on how to stop the spread.

"To be frank, it feels like the government doesn't care," she said.

"We saw with COVID, it primarily was affecting more non-Aboriginal people, so there was messaging, education protocols to follow.

"With this one, it's heartbreaking."

Three-week wait for test results

Locals have told the ABC it is taking up to three weeks for a diphtheria swab test to return a result in Yuendumu, leaving community members in limbo and forced to isolate in overcrowded housing.

Social worker Lily Churchill said while she had seen positive vaccination efforts in the community, there needed to be "a more thorough response around stopping the spread".

"I've had to do house calls for families that have been isolating at home and haven't been able to run to the shop to get stuff," she said.

"But even they were unsure of how long they needed to isolate for, how long before they could go back to work."

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress's John Boffa has previously described the disease as one of poverty and overcrowding, a concern shared by Ms Churchill.

She said a lack of housing and overcrowded conditions in Yuendumu, exacerbated by people gathering for recent cultural events such as sorry business, was also to blame for the spread.

Warlpiri elder and former health worker Jimmy Japanangka Langdon said the community "had never been warned" of the disease, with a particular lack of messaging on social media.

Mr Langdon is also a director of Pintupi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media — with the media service having put out the only diphtheria social media messaging in Central Desert Aboriginal language seen by the ABC, on May 2.

On NT Health's Facebook page, there have only been several mentions of diphtheria since late March, with none of those posts in Aboriginal language.

Mr Langdon said there should have been more shareable information available in Aboriginal languages.

"The message to the government is [that diphtheria] is infecting the Yapa [Aboriginal] people, the community people, from the south to the north, to the west, to the east," he said.

"This disease can spread anywhere. Travellers come across country, places that they come through, they can get infected, because we don't know about the disease."

Ms Watson said the government needed to provide service providers with "a clear, consistent message".

NT Health and Mr Edgington were contacted for comment but did not respond by deadline.

Last week, NT Chief Health Officer Paul Burgess said the department had been "extremely active" in communicating with "Aboriginal media and communication partners".

"While that's not obvious to the mainstream media, there's been a lot of effort with multimedia, social media — community-driven preferences around communication," he said.

On Friday NT Health Minister Steve Edgington defended his government's response to the outbreak, saying the chief health officer had been communicating regularly with the media and a "range of material has been circulated".