Northern Territory records second diphtheria death as outbreak spreads
A man in his 60s died in Alice Springs as the Northern Territory’s diphtheria outbreak widened, with Aboriginal communities carrying almost all of the burden.
An old bacterial disease is exploiting modern gaps in vaccination and access across remote Australia, and the Northern Territory has now recorded a second diphtheria death this month. A man in his early 60s died at an Alice Springs hospital on Sunday after contracting diphtheria; he had pre-existing heart conditions and came from a remote Central Australian community.
The death deepens an outbreak that health authorities declared in March, the first recorded in the NT since the 1990s. Northern Territory Health has issued alerts on 25 March 2026, 31 March 2026 and 22 April 2026 as the Centre for Disease Control responded to cases across the territory. Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that can cause severe respiratory illness and skin infections, but vaccination can prevent it.
The scale of the outbreak now stretches well beyond one jurisdiction. The Northern Territory had 157 cases by 21 May, including 46 confirmed diphtheria cases, and about 60% of infections were in the NT. Reporting from the same week put the spread at 133 cases in the NT, 79 in Western Australia, six in South Australia and up to five in Queensland, a sign that the outbreak is moving quickly across state lines. The Australian Centre for Disease Control has said this is the biggest diphtheria outbreak since records began.
The burden has fallen overwhelmingly on Indigenous Australians. One verified report said Aboriginal people made up 98% of outbreak cases, turning the crisis into a sharp measure of health inequity as much as a test of infection control. The Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory said on 29 April that the outbreak was disproportionately affecting Aboriginal communities and urged people to present early and get vaccinated. The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress has also urged Territorians to get tested and vaccinated.
Health workers and advocates have pointed to vaccine misinformation, workforce shortages, crowded living arrangements and gaps in access to care as likely drivers of the outbreak’s spread in remote communities. Those pressures make even a preventable disease harder to contain once it reaches places where clinics are distant and staffing is thin.
The federal government responded on 21 May with a $7.2 million package to support the Northern Territory Government and the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Sector. Of that, $5.2 million went to the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre to provide surge workforce for booster vaccinations and treatments, and to secure additional vaccines and antibiotics. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has urged people to check their vaccinations and described the outbreak as one of Australia’s worst in decades.
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