Diphtheria Outbreak Spreads to Queensland and South Australia, Health Minister Expresses Concern

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has expressed serious concern as one of Australia's worst-ever diphtheria outbreaks spreads across the Northern Territory border into Queensland and South Australia.

Australia's National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System reports a total of 133 notifications of the disease in the NT since the current outbreak began, with another six in SA and up to five in Queensland.

Speaking with ABC Radio National this morning, Mr Butler said he was "very concerned" about what was "probably the biggest diphtheria outbreak we've seen, certainly for decades".

Mr Butler said the federal government was still waiting on the outcome of an NT government investigation into a reported diphtheria-related death, "but there's no question that this is serious".

"So we're working very closely with the Northern Territory government but also with the Aboriginal-controlled sector."

The health minister said he had met with Aboriginal medical services in Alice Springs, where staff were "deeply, deeply concerned" about the outbreak, with "almost all of the cases" affecting Indigenous Australians.

"We've lifted our efforts around vaccine activity there. You've got to get a booster probably every five years if you're an adult," he said.

"We're working with the NT government and the Aboriginal-controlled sector to get more vaccines there, but we're also working with the Northern Territory government about other things that we can do to help them."

Thousands still need boosters

Speaking with ABC Radio Alice Springs this morning, the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC) health service's John Boffa said there had been a slight decrease in cases this week.

"We've been seeing around 15 to 20 new cases a week, very consistently across the territory for the last four to six weeks or so," he said.

"As we test more people, we were finding more and maybe, hopefully, we're going to get to a point where we've been testing a very large number of people and numbers will start to drop as we see more people vaccinated."

Dr Boffa said there had been "very good vaccine acceptance" so far, but up to half of Central Australia's 18,000-strong Aboriginal population were yet to receive a booster after the recommended interval was revised from 10 years to five years for at-risk populations.

Dr Boffa said the outbreak had reached "all over the Northern Territory", including a number of remote communities, and was at the stage where "the more we look, the more [cases] we find".

"So that's the message, wherever you are, there's a risk and you’ve got to get boosted," he said.

"Anyone with a sore throat at this stage needs to go to their clinic and they need to have their throat swabbed," he said.

"Anyone who's got a skin sore, again you need to go to your clinic with a skin sore and get it swabbed."

Dr Boffa said while there was still no official cause of death in the one suspected diphtheria fatality so far, there was a "95 per cent certainty" it was related to the illness.

"I understand the government has to wait for its processes and for a final report to be declared by the coroner," he said.

"But when we're in the midst of a communicable disease outbreak and we're trying to encourage people to get vaccinated and we're trying to effectively communicate the potential life-threatening nature of this disease, it is important that this sort of information gets out sooner rather than later."