WA Department of Health has issued a clinician alert advising seven cases of toxigenic diphtheria (five cutaneous, two respiratory) have been notified in Aboriginal people in the Kimberley since December 2025, with shared genomic and/or epidemiological links.
Respiratory diphtheria is extremely rare in WA; these are the first cases to be notified in over 50 years.
Clinicians are advised to be vigilant for patients presenting with clinically suspicious skin sores, infected wounds, or upper respiratory illness in or from the Kimberley, and potentially the Pilbara or Goldfields regions. Urgently notify suspected or confirmed diphtheria cases to your local Public Health Unit by phone (or call 1800 434 122 if after hours); do not wait for laboratory confirmation before notifying.
For more information, see the WA Department of Health Alert for Kimberley, Pilbara and Goldfields Clinicians – 12 March 2026.