Vaccinations are ‘not enough’ to contain diphtheria outbreak in remote Washington state, disease official says

Vaccination alone will not be enough to stop the spread of a “rare outbreak” of diphtheria in Western Australia and the state is likely to seek support from the federal government to ensure remote communities are fully covered, the state’s infectious disease chief has said.

Diphtheria outbreaks have been reported across Australia this year, primarily in the Northern Territory, WA and South Australia, with more than 220 cases reported.

The federal government has announced a multi-million dollar funding boost to help tackle the outbreak.

Of the 85 cases recorded so far in WA, most are in the Kimberley region.

Paul Armstrong said the disease appeared to be caused by a strain first discovered in northern Queensland in 2022.

Dr Armstrong said the ongoing vaccination program was focused on preventing more severe symptoms rather than stopping the spread of the disease.

“We certainly have very high vaccination rates in WA, with vaccination rates in the Kimberley and other regions exceeding 90 per cent,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s why we’re having this outbreak at this point.”

He said the first phase of the two-part vaccination program was already underway in the three affected regions, with 2,000 people vaccinated since the beginning of May, but thousands more were at risk.

“We still have a long way to go,” Dr. Armstrong said.

“There are probably around 18,000 people in these three areas and it’s Aboriginal people who are most at risk, and there are many other non-Aboriginal people in these areas.”

Two-phase vaccination rollout

Dr. Armstrong said the first phase of the rollout focused on unvaccinated people who would be provided free shots by the state government.

“The effectiveness of the vaccine is not about the transmission of the bacteria, it’s about making it much less likely that you will get seriously ill if you get infected with the bacteria,” he said.

He said the second phase would prioritize access to remote communities and would require “more planning”.

”[It will involve] “Teams will be going to individual communities to vaccinate them…we will also be working closely with Aboriginal health organizations in those areas and the Aboriginal Health Council of Western Australia to do that,” Dr Armstrong said.

“We are also in discussions with the Commonwealth about how to increase the funding of the vaccination programme.”

New challenges for clinical staff

Lorraine Anderson from Aboriginal Health Services said many of Kimberley’s medical staff had never seen the disease before, so it was difficult to know how to treat it.

”“It’s very difficult for our clinicians to try to introduce a relatively new disease because it’s such an old disease,” she said.

“And the other thing is that they tend to come with sore throats and skin infections, which we see all the time in our clinic, especially in Kimberly.”

Caitlin White from the WA Aboriginal Health Council urged everyone who hasn’t had a diphtheria vaccination in the past five years, or at all, to come get vaccinated.

Dr. White said the problem is a lack of the workforce who can give people vaccines and boosters.

“People are coming in to get vaccinated, but our clinics are busy with so many other things,” she said.

I didn’t know that diphtheria existed in Kimberly.

A Windham mother of two boys first learned about the diphtheria outbreak last week after she took her sons to the hospital with a sore throat.

Emma Venables said when she arrived, staff began asking questions about diphtheria.

”I didn’t know anything about it so I did a little Google search and found out what it was and was surprised that it still existed in the Kimberley,” she said.

”If it was a population health issue, I was surprised that no notes were sent home about it, and that we didn’t realize it until we actually took the kids in. [to hospital]. ”

The state is working to ‘control the spread of infection’

WA Health Minister Meredith Hammatt said the state’s response to the outbreak began after the state government began responding to the outbreak. first case detected.

“WA Health has been working closely with Aboriginal Health Services and other clinical services to manage the outbreak and reduce its spread through support for those diagnosed, contact tracing and vaccination,” Mr Hammatt said.

“We have also increased access to vaccination with vaccines available free of charge to residents of the Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfields and those who have regular face-to-face contact with Indigenous communities in these regions.”

Clint Bassey, program and services manager at Nyindilingyari Cultural Health Services, said more support was needed to vaccinate the region, especially in remote areas.

“We are about the same size as Austria, with 40 communities. Our workforce is unlike any other,” he says.

“Not all of us have access to clinics and health services every day, so this is a really difficult situation for everyone in the community.

“What’s more important is that we have foot soldiers who are willing to help get out there and spread the message and get the vaccines available to our equipped soldiers.”