Samoa’s Ministry of Health (MOH) will be launching a campaign soon to boost the coverage percentage of measles vaccination in the country, following a confirmed case of measles in New Zealand.
Director General of Health, Aiono Professor Alec Ekeroma, told the Samoa Observer that there’s serious exposure to measles, if there is an epidemic in countries that Samoa routinely connects with, such as New Zealand.
But for now, there’s no epidemic reported in New Zealand. “One case is not an epidemic,” he stated.
MOH will be launching a campaign soon to increase the measles vaccine coverage.
The first dose of Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR1), has achieved 82 percent coverage in the country, while the second dose or the MMR2 has 45 percent coverage.
Aiono added, that one dose of the MMR vaccine has a 93 percent protection therefore, there is a need to push the MMR1 past 90 percent; and get the MMR 2 up past 80 percent by June, this year.
Aiono said, when there is an increase in the number of cases or an epidemic is declared in New Zealand, Samoa can then officially issue alerts for awareness and protection.
Reports from New Zealand, earlier in the week, confirmed one measles case to be that of an adult, who travelled into New Zealand and recorded the country’s first case since the 2019 measles outbreak.
During Samoa’s measles epidemic in 2019, a total of 5,612 cases were recorded and 81 deaths, mostly children under 5.
