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Measles outbreak in Samoa

Jens Laerke, for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), read the following statement:

“The United Nations emergency response fund, the CERF, has released US$2.6 million to help responders scale up and fight back against the devastating measles outbreak in Samoa.

The funds will provide emergency vaccinations, obstetric and neonatal care for mothers and newborns infected with measles, help with mental health and psychosocial support and provide clean water and sanitation and public health information.

On 15 November, the Government of Samoa declared a state of emergency in response to the growing measles outbreak. The country has since been in a race against the disease to vaccinate its population and treat those who have already been affected. Its youngest citizens are most at risk, along with pregnant women and new mothers.

As of this morning, 4,819 measles cases have been reported to the Disease Surveillance Team since the outbreak started, according to the Ministry of Health in Samoa. There were 87 cases recorded over the past 24 hours.

In a country with a population of about 200,000, these numbers have been overwhelming for the health system. To date, 70 people have died as a result of the outbreak.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock, who released the emergency money, said that the people of Samoa will not fight this outbreak alone and that we can and must move swiftly to stop this deadly outbreak in its tracks.

The Government of Samoa, with support from the United Nations and the international community, launched a mass vaccination campaign on 20 November. This campaign has so far reached about 90 per cent of the 143,000 people it targeted.

The Government of Samoa has also launched a National Measles Response and Recovery Appeal, asking for nearly $11 million to support national efforts to contain the outbreak.

By the end of November 2019, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and American Samoa have all reported measles outbreaks. Prior to the ongoing outbreaks, measles vaccine coverage varied in Pacific island countries and areas, ranging from 31 per cent in Samoa to 99 per cent in the Cook Islands and Nauru.”

Tarik Jašarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that measles outbreaks had also been reported in Australia, Cambodia, China, including Hong Kong and Macao, Japan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Viet Nam.

In Samoa, the Ministry of Health had declared the outbreak on 16 October and the national state of emergency on 15 November. Under the declaration, the Government had activated all sectors to support a coordinated government response and instituted a series of public orders, including mandatory vaccination as a legal requirement for the entire population.

A mass vaccination campaign had been launched on 20 November, focusing in the first instance on the main islands and aiming to provide vaccinations to those most at risk, namely children aged between 6 months and 19 years and non-pregnant women aged between 20 and 39 years. The campaign had been expanded on 2 December to target everyone aged between 6 months and 60 years.

There were currently nine medical emergency teams from different countries in Samoa. The response was being coordinated by the emergency medical teams coordination cell led by the Ministry of Health and WHO. WHO had deployed five public health experts, including an epidemiologist, an infectious disease specialist, a psychosocial support expert and a vaccine expert. In cooperation with UNICEF, WHO had supported the procurement of vaccines and vitamin A, as well as the delivery of human immunoglobin donated by French Polynesia.

The global increase in measles was a sign of collective failure — all parties needed to work together to reach 95 per cent vaccination coverage which protected everyone.

In response to questions from journalists, Mr. Jašarevic said that 61 of the 70 people who had died of measles in Samoa had been children. The onset of the disease brought various complications, including encephalitis and pneumonia, which were more serious in children. It was a tragedy that people were dying from a disease that could be prevented by vaccination. According to the latest information, 91 per cent of the population of Samoa had now been vaccinated. The Government and its partners were working hard to increase that level to 95 per cent.