Australia Says 230-Case Diphtheria Outbreak Is Easing After $7.2 Million Response
Updated
Updated · Express · May 29
Australia Says 230-Case Diphtheria Outbreak Is Easing After $7.2 Million Response
9 articles · Updated · Express · May 29
More than 230 diphtheria cases have been recorded in Australia this year, but officials said new infections are now falling after a national response launched on May 22.
The campaign includes a A$7.2 million package for vaccination drives, antibiotics and community outreach after cases climbed from late 2025 and surged sharply from February.
One man died in April at Royal Darwin Hospital—the first confirmed diphtheria death in Australia in a decade—with the heaviest caseloads in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
UK health authorities have warned unvaccinated Britons to check their shots before traveling to Australia, where the outbreak has hit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities particularly hard.
Australia's chief medical officer called it the country's largest diphtheria outbreak since records began in 1991, underscoring wider concern over slipping vaccine coverage.
How did a preventable 19th-century disease make a deadly comeback in a modern nation like Australia?
With 94% of cases in Indigenous communities, what systemic failures does this outbreak expose beyond vaccination rates?