Following the deaths of 13 children, a cholera outbreak on a remote island near the Torres Strait is being monitored by Queensland health officials.

About 64 locals are being treated at a hospital due to the outbreak on Papua New Guinea's Daru Island, in Western Province on the southwest coast, opposite Cape York.

Queensland Health communicable diseases branch senior director Dr Christine Selvey said that residents from Torres Strait island who maintain a good hygiene need not bother.

About 20,000 people rely on water from mainland at Daru, one of the closest PNG towns to Australia.

According to Dr Selvey in the Torres Strait, conditions were good.

She said, "It's exceedingly unlikely that cholera could spread locally within north Queensland. Hygiene and food preparation practices in the Torres Strait are good, there is ready access to safe drinking water, and there is safe disposal of human wastes."

She said with just one recorded imported case into north Queensland in the mid-1990s, travelers to PNG should not be concerned.

It has been reported that up to 10 per cent of patients develop a severe illness from cholera, which is an acute diarrheal disease.