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American Samoa has declared a public health emergency amid fears of a deadly measles outbreak.
Key points:
- Epidemiologist Scott Anesi says the goal is to fully vaccinate all children in grade 1 and above before schools reopen
- He says all active cases are currently in stable condition and ‘doing well’
- Samoa has introduced vaccination requirements for all travelers from American Samoa
It follows a young girl testing positive for the viral infection and 31 other probable cases under investigation.
The announcement prompted its nearest neighbor Samoa to impose travel restrictions on Wednesday.
From Monday, people arriving from American Samoa must present proof of measles vaccination, while accompanying children under the age of two must have received at least a single dose of the vaccine.
Suspected cases include children who had been hospitalized, but were younger than six months old and were not eligible for the vaccine.
“We are closing all of our schools,” said American Samoa’s chief epidemiologist, Scott Anesi.
“We have started the first round of closing early childhood education centers, as well as daycares.
“We are now moving to all elementary schools and completing our mass vaccination campaign.”
The US territory has a 91% vaccination rate and health officials are visiting communities to track the spread of the disease.
Active cases ‘doing well’
Dr Anesi said all current cases were “stable and doing well”.
“With measles, the first four to five days are crucial, so our clinical team is evaluating that, but so far so good,” he said.
The aim was to have all school children fully vaccinated, starting in grade 1, in order to reopen schools.
“All schools are required by law to verify the immunization status of children enrolled in schools above the first grade.”
Non-essential government services and inter-island ferries were closed and residents were placed under a dawn-to-dusk curfew while those who were not vaccinated were asked to put a red flag on their homes.
“The main response now is clinical investigations, contact tracing to identify symptomatic active cases in the community, get them tested, treat them, isolate them and try to stem the flow of community transmission.”
Dr. Anesi acknowledged that the public health response was being held up by a lack of local lab testing, which meant samples from probable cases had to be sent to the Hawaii state lab for analysis.
“We are discussing turnaround times [at the Hawaii State Laboratory ],” he said.
“We will know more about this outbreak by the end of the week.”
A highly contagious viral infection
In 2019, Samoa implemented a two-day lockdown to contain a measles outbreak that killed at least 81 peoplemost of whom were children.
Dr Anesi said they were treating the response as if ‘we would have widespread community transmission’.
“In poorly vaccinated populations, one person can transmit measles to 18 people,” he said.
“That’s why we closed schools, limited gatherings and worked with the community.”
According to the World Health Organization, measles is particularly deadly in children under five.
The highly contagious viral infection killed millions every year before vaccination rates improved.
American Samoa is home to 50,000 people, including a large American military community.
ABC/AFP
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