Grace Burns

Now, I'm a GP who's going to touch wood as I answer this because I know we could be tempting fate here.

Pretty good.

But I am someone who, if I'm worried, my brain talks to my tummy.

This is how I explain it to my children.

I'm Priya Alexander on Wurundjeri land.

Also on the show, we look at a study that has looked at people presenting with bowel cancer symptoms in general practice and real variations in investigation.

In the news, something that we don't talk about often, diphtheria, a bacterial infection which can be very serious.

There has been, but this is something I've only studied, Norman.

We learn about it in medical school.

I've never seen a case.

And this is, of course, a bacterial infection which can cause skin lesions or you can actually get really sore throat fever and you can get what we call a pseudomembrane on the back of your throat where you can't breathe.

So Western Australian Department of Health have reported seven cases in Aboriginal people living in the Kimberley region since December.

Northern Territory has reported four cases.

South Australia has a case of diphtheria in the APY lands.

Now, just for context, in 2025, there were less than 40 cases across the country.

So this is significant.

And

For everyone listening, diphtheria is on the National Immunisation Program for children.

They get multiple doses.

They get another booster dose in year seven at school.