Shigella Outbreak in Victoria

 Shigella Outbreak in Victoria Highlights a Society in Crisis

There’s a new Shigella outbreak spreading through the homeless community in Victoria and the South Island, and health officials are sounding the alarm.
But let’s be honest: this outbreak is not just about bacteria.
It’s about us—and what we’ve allowed our society to become.

Shigella spreads where people don’t have bathrooms, where there’s no place to wash hands, and where sanitation relies on luck and charity rather than human rights. It spreads in exactly the kind of conditions we’ve created by ignoring homelessness, cutting services, and pretending that people can survive without access to the most basic essentials.

Island Health has confirmed multiple cases, and the number is likely much higher. People are getting sick because they’re living outside in extreme weather with no hygiene, no clean water, and no safety net. And somehow, we keep acting shocked—like these outbreaks are unpredictable tragedies instead of completely preventable consequences.

This isn’t “just a homeless issue.”
This is a public health warning.
When the most vulnerable get sick, that illness doesn’t politely stay inside a tent. It spreads. It grows. It adapts.

If we don’t take care of people, something much worse is coming.
Outbreaks like this are a symptom of a larger collapse—a society where we’ve normalized suffering, ignored poverty, and built a world where basic human needs are treated as luxuries.

How can a rich, developed country not maintain safe public washrooms?
How can cities install hostile architecture but not places to shower?
Why are people punished for being poor, then blamed when illness spreads in the conditions they were forced into?

This outbreak is a mirror.
It’s showing us exactly who we are and what we’ve chosen to ignore.

It doesn’t have to be this way.
We could choose compassion.
We could choose housing instead of band-aids.
We could choose washrooms, showers, and dignity.
We could choose to treat every human being like their life matters.
Because it does.

Until we do, outbreaks like this won’t be rare.
They’ll be the new normal.
And if we let society break this far without action, something far worse than Shigella will be waiting on the horizon.