MELBOURNE: The South Pacific island nation of Samoa on Saturday extended a state of emergency due to a measles outbreak which has killed 72 people, mostly infants, as New Zealand announced NZ$1 million ($640,700) to help combat measles in the Pacific.
Samoa said a state of emergency will be extended to December 29 with 5,154 cases of measles now reported since the outbreak started in October. Samoa has a population of only 200,000.
Measles started appearing en masse earlier this year in the New Zealand city of Auckland, a hub for travel to and from small South Pacific islands.
The majority of those …read more
Source:: The Himalayan Times
