Two more deaths from measles in Samoa, toll now 65

Mobile vaccination teams went out across Samoa on Thursday and Friday. Photo: RNZ / Logan Church. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.

APIA, Dec 8, 2019, RNZ. There are now 65 measles related deaths in Samoa following two more fatalities over the past 24 hours, Radio New Zealand reported.

More than 120 vaccination teams went out on Thursday across Samoa. We were told at the end of the day about 5500 vaccinations were given out on the first day of the government shutdown.

The government says there is also now at least 4460 measles cases since the outbreak began in October.

There were 103 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours.

165 people remain hospitalised including 18 critically ill children and three pregnant women.

The new figures come after a two-day nationwide shutdown to enable vaccination teams to reach households where people still needed to be immunised.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said the teams carried out more than 20,000 vaccinations on Thursday and Friday.

The Department of Health in American Samoa has now declared a measles outbreak after confirmation of nine samples sent to Hawaii for testing.

Of the nine, five are people who are travellers to the territory.

Epidemiologist Dr Aifili John Tufa announced the outbreak during a live broadcast fundraiser to help neighbouring Samoa’s fight against the disease.

Dr Tufa later told KHJ News they believe there are other cases that have not presented at the hospital.

He said this means they couldn’t track these people, who may have exposed others, spreading the disease further, and the Department of Health does not have any way to track them, “and some of them, we have identified, they were sick with the measles here, they got better but did not present at the hospital. So that way we cannot track the numbers. So that’s the concern and we are sure these are not isolated events.”

The outbreak began in Samoa two months ago and, as of today, 65 people have died, and more than 4,000 people have been infected.

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