The American Samoa government on Friday declared an outbreak of measles, a move that will lead to the closure of public schools starting today and a ban on gatherings in parks.
The US territory said in a statement that it has nine cases of the disease, adding that five of those infected had been traveling outside the territory.
As for the other four people who tested positive for measles, “we’re suspecting that is local transmission — meaning that it’s most likely that some of these travelers did transmit the measles virus to them, causing them to be sick,” American Samoa Department of Health epidemiologist Aifili John Tufa said.
Tufa said in a TV broadcast that samples from infected people were sent to Hawaii for testing and the results came back on Thursday, resulting in the move to let the public know that “we are currently in the state of emergency” and a “measles outbreak.”
In the neighboring independent nation of Samoa, more than 60 people have died, mostly children, from the measles, and more than 4,000 were infected since an outbreak started in the middle of October, health officials said.
American Samoa would get a measles vaccine shipment from the US Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) today, Tufa said.
Data presented last week by health officials at a Cabinet meeting showed a 99.7 percent vaccination rate for mumps, measles and rubella in the territory, officials said.
However, Tufa said that more needs to be done to increase the rate for the one-to-five age group, which is at 84.7 percent.
“The number one way to stop the spread of measles is to immunize,” he said.
The developments in American Samoa came after dozens of Hawaii healthcare workers returned to their homes across the state after voluntarily providing measles vaccinations to thousands of Samoans, officials said.
A team of 76 healthcare workers and support staff went to Samoa for a two-day medical mission to ensure people were immunized for the highly contagious virus, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has reported.
“You have scores of people dying, and the society is paralyzed,” Honolulu surgeon Paulus Tsai said. “Basically life has come to a standstill for the island.”
Samoa declared a state of emergency, and complete shutdown of government and business operations while vaccination teams searched for residents susceptible to the disease, health officials said.
About 34,000 people were immunized over two days, they said.
“Of all the efforts to save children around the world, immunization has the most dramatic impact. Everybody came together with their aloha to unite and support Samoa and attack this disease head-on in a way that will make a permanent difference in the lives of the people,” Straub Medical Center family physician Dale Glenn said.
The mission was coordinated by medical doctor and Hawaii Lieutenant Governor Josh Green, who worked with Samoan leaders, the WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, officials said.
More than 500 people and groups responded ready to volunteer about 4,200km southwest of Hawaii, officials said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of