Death Toll From Measles In Samoa Rises To 32 - Government

The death toll from a measles epidemic in Samoa has reached 32, with more than 2,400 registered cases of the disease, the government of the island nation said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th November, 2019) The death toll from a measles epidemic in Samoa has reached 32, with more than 2,400 registered cases of the disease, the government of the island nation said on Tuesday.

The country's Health Ministry declared a measles epidemic on October 16 after the first deaths were reported. As of Monday, the death toll stood at 25.

"Latest update: 2,437 measles cases have been reported since the outbreak with 243 recorded in the last 24 hours. To date, 32 measles-related deaths have been recorded," the government said on Twitter.

Of the 32 deaths, 28 were children aged up to 4, it added.

The authorities began a mass vaccination campaign on November 20, and since then, the ministry has successfully vaccinated 24,000 persons of the country's less-than-200,000 population.

Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that starts in the respiratory system. Its spread has been steadily on the rise since 2016.

The World Health Organization said in August that the number of measles cases registered in the first half of 2019 is three times higher than during the same period last year, with the highest number of instances recorded in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar.