The Northern Territory government says diphtheria cases are declining after a vaccine blitz saw more than 10,000 residents immunised against the disease, as authorities confirm the ongoing outbreak has already claimed one life.Speaking to the media this morning, NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said there had been 163 diphtheria cases reported in the territory, with 115 of those being skin infections and 48 being the more dangerous respiratory infection.NT Chief Health Officer Paul Burgess said case numbers had fallen from up to 22 new reports each week at the height of the outbreak, to just nine cases in the past seven days."We've done a mountain of work in terms of improving our vaccination rates I can tell you today that in the last seven weeks alone, more than 10,000 vaccines are in arms protecting Territorians against diphtheria," he said."That's a fantastic effort in a short period of time and shows great participation and partnership approach between our colleagues at [Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory] and community-controlled health services and NT Health clinics."Mr Edgington said despite the encouraging numbers, health staff would continue to work to try to stamp out the illness once considered largely eradicated in Australia."The numbers are declining [but] we're far from out of the woods