Editorial: Put Samoa on your Christmas gift list

Samoan nurse and recently crowned Miss Pacific Islands Fonoifafo McFarland-Seumanu, left, joined the nationwide vaccination campaign. Photo / supplied

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Right now, measles continues to ravage across Samoa. More than 70 people have been confirmed dead - an overwhelming majority are children.

No child, let alone in our Pacific community, should suffer this deadly and unnecessary disease. Certainly not when two doses of a measles vaccine - what a child needs to be fully protected and immunised - costs a dollar.

Yesterday, MFAT confirmed the first reported case of measles had flown to Samoa from New Zealand in late August. "It is highly likely that New Zealand is the main source for the outbreak in Samoa," the spokesperson said.

We can debate who is responsible for the vaccination rates falling from favour in 2018 after two infants died from poorly prepared vaccines. This is not helping those now being infected.

Latest update: 4,898 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak with 83 recorded in the last 24 hours. To date, 71 measles related deaths have been recorded.

VACCINATION UPDATE: As of 10 Dec, 91% of population have been vaccinated.

— Government of Samoa (@samoagovt) December 10, 2019

Samoa has now vaccinated more than 90 per cent of the population.

Readers can assist the effort via unicef.org.nz