Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Today's episode was made possible by our friends over at YWCA Australia. Ready?
And good morning. This is the Daily Oz. This is the Daily Oz.
This is the Daily Oz.
Oh, now it makes sense.
MUSIC
Good morning and welcome to The Daily Oz. It's Monday the 25th of May. I'm Billie Fitzsimons. I'm Zara Seidler. Australia is experiencing its worst outbreak of diphtheria since records began in the 1990s.
An outbreak in the outback. Governments across the country are racing to contain the largest diphtheria outbreak since records began in Australia. Spread through coughing and sneezing, the disease is highly contagious...
So far this year, the majority of cases are in the Northern Territory, but it has started spreading to other states. So what is it and how concerned should we be? We'll tell you what you need to know in today's podcast. But before we get there, here is a quick message from Rosa, who is our fabulous producer, who is currently in the room with us.
Hey, my name is Rosa. I'm the multimedia producer here at The Daily Oz, which means I help edit the audio and video content that you're watching right now. Most recently, it means I've helped the team transition from audio podcast to a full-time video podcast, which you can watch on Apple or YouTube.
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Chapter 2: What is Australia's current diphtheria outbreak and its significance?
Billie, before we talk about diphtheria, I do think it should be acknowledged from the outset that it might feel like every week we're talking about a different outbreak. And you would be forgiven for thinking that because that is the case at the moment. We've got the Ebola outbreak in Africa at the moment. We've got the Hantavirus outbreak on that cruise ship.
And today we're talking about something else. I know you and Em spoke separately in a podcast about what the threshold for reporting is. This is a domestic topic and this is something that's very important to a lot of Australians. So I think that's why we're covering it. But for anyone that's not familiar, let's start with diphtheria itself. What is it and what is this outbreak?
Yeah, you'd be forgiven for not knowing a lot about diphtheria because it hasn't been, well, there hasn't been an outbreak in Australia for many, many decades. So even though many of us would have been vaccinated against it when we were younger, we probably haven't heard about it because it's not something that has been in the news for any of our lives, I guess.
In terms of what it is, it can impact people in two ways. The first is respiratory. So that means that it can cause breathing difficulties for you.
Chapter 3: How is diphtheria transmitted and where is it spreading?
It can cause swelling in the nose, in the throat or in the neck. And then the second way is through skin. So it can cause skin ulcers. It can cause sores, lesions, those kinds of things. So there are two main ways that the symptoms manifest. Now that's according to the Australian Centre for Disease Control. Are you familiar with that body?
No, I'm familiar with the American one.
Yes, did you know that we established one in Australia after the pandemic?
I mean, it adds up. I hadn't heard about it though.
Yeah, well. So it was temporarily set up I think it was 2023, 24. During COVID or after COVID. It was kind of right after COVID and then it was permanently set up last year. And this is the first time that I have, I guess, interacted with them in my reporting as a journalist going to their site. And, yeah, it is designed for exactly this, for when there are public health emergencies.
It hasn't been declared that here in Australia, but when there are public health concerns. Yeah. This is the body that will be, I guess, the go-to point of contact for Australians. So if you remember during the pandemic, mostly it was governments and the health departments of state governments, the federal government.
The 11am press conference.
Yes. Yeah. So now it's the Australian Centre for Disease Control. Like you said, there is one in the US. And I'm pretty sure it's called the exact same thing, right? CDC. Yeah, it is.
Okay. And so we have this Australian equivalent. It has information about this outbreak. Presumably we've reached a point now where... it's crossed a threshold and it's in the news and it is concerning to authorities. What's the origin, I guess, of this outbreak and what do we know about how it is spreading?
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Chapter 4: What are the symptoms and health impact of diphtheria?
And also to treatment because obviously for some people, unfortunately, they now are infected and it could be too late, but they can have treatment to mitigate how sick they get.
Billie, perhaps this is a full circle from the beginning of this podcast about the fact that it feels like we are reading, hearing, listening to stories about outbreaks a lot more frequently than perhaps other times. And it made me think of a headline that I saw last week that there was a report that said we're at more risk of a pandemic than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not sure what to make of that. Can you explain it?
So this was a report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. Seems legit.
Chapter 5: What is the historical context of diphtheria in Australia?
Seems legit. It is a World Health Organization convened body that was created in 2018. So before COVID. Before COVID. And it did release this study, which essentially did say that we are not completely prepared as a world. So this is moving far beyond Australia now. We are not completely prepared for the next pandemic. The first line says, the evidence is clear.
The world is not safer from pandemics. In terms of why, it talks about a whole range of reasons. One is low trust in governments and institutions and that falling even more. I was going to say that's not improving. No, exactly. And that's part of the reason why they think that We're not completely prepared because you need people to trust in governments.
I mean, like we just said, when the pandemic was happening, the government was our main source of information. And there was so much misinformation at that time. There was a lack of trust with some governments at that point in time. And they say that that has got even worse since the pandemic.
Other reasons also include funding for pandemic preparedness and also, I guess, geopolitical cooperation. So even if we look at the World Health Organization and the United States, we talked about this with the Hantavirus episode as well, that their funding has broken down.
There is not as much funding to the World Health Organization that is coming from the US government, which has impacted their ability to cooperate when there are big outbreaks. So that is falling. They said that that is back to 2009 levels. So that's a very top level explanation of that report.
It was quite detailed, but it did say that we are not more prepared for a pandemic now than we were prior to the COVID one. One thing it did talk about though, which I thought was interesting, is that contact tracing would be better today than it was prior to the pandemic.
Have not heard that term in a while.
Can you think why?
QR code take up?
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