PAGO PAGO (American Samoa), April 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Pacific territory of American Samoa has declared a measles emergency, prompting its nearest island neighbour to announce travel restrictions Wednesday.
After one confirmed and 31 probable cases of the viral infection, American Samoa’s governor Lemanu Mauga declared a public health emergency, fearing a potentially deadly outbreak.
The Pacific territory is home to about 50,000 people, including a sizable contingent of US military personnel.
The suspected cases include children who have been hospitalised, but are under six months old and ineligible for the vaccine, the government has said.
Scott Anesi, an epidemiologist at the Department of Health, said that it’s now “a waiting game” to get the results of the suspected cases from a laboratory on nearby Hawaii.
Anesi said the focus is on getting as many people as possible vaccinated.
The government has said the current vaccination rates on American Samoa “are not sufficient” to prevent the disease from spreading.
All schools and daycare facilities have been ordered to close for three weeks.
The government of neighbouring Samoa has said that from Monday, travellers arriving from American Samoa must show proof of a measles vaccination.
Accompanying children under two years of age must have had at least a single vaccine dose, it added.
In 2019 Samoa staged a two-day lock down aimed at containing a month-long measles epidemic that had killed at least 81 people including dozens of children.
Non-essential government services and inter-island ferries were closed, and residents were placed under a dawn-to-dusk curfew and the unimmunised were told to place a red flag on their homes.
According to the World Health Organisation, measles is particularly deadly among children under the age of five.
The highly contagious viral infection had killed millions of people each year before vaccination became widespread. — NNN-AGENCIES
