Samoa Declares State Of Emergency After Measles Deaths
Nov 18, 2019, 9:57 AM | Updated: Jun 7, 2022, 4:03 pm
FILE (Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)
(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images)
(CNN) — Samoa has declared a state of emergency after several deaths linked to a measles outbreak, closing schools and placing restrictions on public gatherings, the Reuters news agency reported.
There have been at six least deaths linked to the outbreak in the South Pacific island nation — mostly infants under the age of two — Reuters reported, citing a statement from the country’s health ministry.
The Samoa Ministry of Health declared a measles outbreak on October 16, according to the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
There have been at least 716 cases of the highly infectious illness in the country, Reuters said, with 40% of cases requiring hospitalization.
Measles has seen a wide resurgence around the world — in both high-income countries in the Americas and Europe and lower-income nations in Asia and Africa — fueled in part by fear of and lack of access to vaccines, and complacency.
Almost 350,000 measles cases were reported globally in 2018, according to UNICEF — more than doubling from 2017.
On Monday, Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign affairs minister, said his country would send vaccination nurses and a medical assistance team of doctors and nurses to Samoa to support the country’s immunization program.
“On 15 November the Government of Samoa declared a State of Emergency as the numbers of people infected with measles continues to rise and the hospital system is under strain,” Peters said.
“Measles is highly contagious, and the outbreak has taken lives in Samoa. It is in everybody’s interests that we work together to stop its spread,” Peters said in a separate statement on Friday.
David Durrheim, conjoint professor at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle in Australia, told CNN affiliate SBS News that Samoa has long had low levels of vaccination, dropping to as low as 41% in 2008.
According to the World Health Organization, roughly 95% of a population needs to be vaccinated with two doses of the measles vaccine to ensure herd immunity.
In Tonga, another South Pacific nation, the Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of measles following the return of Tongan rugby players from New Zealand, where one player developed the illness.
In a report released on Wednesday, the ministry said 251 cases of confirmed or suspected measles have been identified.
