Disease Outbreak

Western Australia could be on track for its worst outbreak of measles in the past five years, as infections in Hakea Prison cause chaos in the courts and the list of exposure sites grows.

The Buruli ulcer, a bacterial infection that eats away at skin tissue, affected more than 350 people in Victoria last year. Now there's a new case in NSW.

Health departments around the country are warning Australians to be alert for symptoms of measles as concerns grow about a rise in cases amid declining vaccination rates. 

The death toll from Queensland's unprecedented melioidosis outbreak continues to rise with another five fatalities reported in the state's north in the past week.

Health authorities are on high alert after another melioidosis death in North Queensland amid fears the disease is occurring in places where it was previously all but unheard of.

The portable diagnostic tool tests skin swabs for the presence of scabies DNA.

An ACT man in his 70s has died after contracting the mosquito-borne virus following his holiday in the Murrumbidgee region.

Army veteran Mathew Whitbread, 49, was fit and healthy when he contracted melioidosis while mud crabbing in north Queensland. It nearly killed him.

Sixteen people have now died of the disease in Queensland this year.

The rare but dangerous soil-borne disease melioidosis has claimed another life in North Queensland overnight, but health authorities expect cases to decline as conditions dry up.

What is melioidosis?

The heavy rain and flooding that caused so much damage in north Queensland has now cleared, but in its wake stirs a deadly bacteria that has so far killed 12 people. 

The number of cases of the soil-borne infection is at an all-time high in northern Queensland, and a survivor says people need to take it seriously.

A Sydney man dies after contracting Japanese encephalitis while on holiday in southern NSW. It is the state's third confirmed death from the disease since it was first detected in the state in 2022.

North Queensland has recorded three more deaths from melioidosis on top of four in the state's far north, while health authorities are also concerned about multiple dengue fever cases.

The wife of a man who died after contracting melioidosis urges people to be alert to symptoms after a surge in cases and four recent deaths in Far North Queensland.

There are fears the arrival of wet season rains has created the perfect breeding conditions for two key carriers of Japanese encephalitis — mosquitoes and feral pigs.

Although floodwaters have receded in North Queensland, a waterborne illness has killed several dogs in recent days.

A Queensland health service has recorded 30 cases of melioidosis since 1 January, including, sadly, two patient deaths.

Hundreds of cases of flesh-eating Buruli ulcer have been reported in Victoria this year, a new study has named a NSW tourist town as the next potential hotspot and has warned of possible spread along NSW coastline