30/05/2026
Australia has seen an outbreak of Diptheria. This can be prevented by vaccination 💉.
Vaccination is available at KARUA Medical Centre for free . K30 service fee applies . Book an appointment and get vaccinated against this preventable disease 🦠.
Diphtheria is a disease of poverty that has no place in modern Australia. When we talk about Closing the Gap, this is the gap
The diphtheria outbreak should shock Australia. Not simply because a disease once considered virtually eradicated has returned, but because of where it is spreading and why.
Donna Ah Chee is a Bundjalung woman and the chief executive of Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory
More than 220 cases have been recorded in 2026, primarily across the Northern Territory and northern Australia. The overwhelming majority of patients are Aboriginal people, including those living in remote and very remote communities.
For much of mainstream Australia, the return of diphtheria has come as a surprise. But for those of us working in Aboriginal health, this outbreak is not isolated.
When we talk about Closing the Gap, this is the gap.
It is overcrowded housing that allows infectious diseases to spread quickly in communities with high levels of poverty and food insecurity. It is practical barriers to transport and healthcare access. It is the lack of affordable healthy food in remote communities and poor environmental health conditions.
These are the conditions that allow diseases of poverty to persist in one of the richest countries in the world.
Across the NT, Aboriginal community-controlled health services continue to treat disproportionately high rates of communicable diseases such as rheumatic heart disease, skin infections and scabies – all closely linked to overcrowding and poor environmental health. The climate crisis is intensifying many of these pressures in communities already facing housing stress and infrastructure shortages, as well as contributing to the spread of infectious diseases through changing temperatures and rainfall patterns.
Communicable diseases hunt down vulnerable communities. Around the world, outbreaks take hold where poverty, overcrowding and inequality increase exposure to illness. Australia is not immune.
The re-emergence of a preventable disease should force us to confront those conditions.
Aboriginal community-controlled health services have helped drive significant improvements in health including in child health, antenatal care and chronic disease treatment and prevention.
Life expectancy has increased significantly over the past 20 years, by about nine years for Aboriginal men and five years for Aboriginal women.
These gains are the result of decades of work led by Aboriginal-controlled primary healthcare services and built on trust, prevention and long-term relationships with community.
Vaccination rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have also improved since the Covid pandemic began. About 90% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged two to five are fully immunised. Aboriginal community-controlled health services have been central to achieving this.
But this outbreak also shows the enormous pressures these services are under.
A report commissioned by Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory in 2025 called Facing the Health Gap found that most Aboriginal health services in the NT had to reduce core services because of workforce shortages.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/29/diphtheria-outbreak-remote-communities-aboriginal-indigenous-health-ntwnfb?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
NACCHO Aboriginal Health Australia
Katie Kiss - Social Justice Commissioner
Coalition of Peaks
Senator Malarndirri McCarthy - Northern Territory
Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress
