Measles cases in Samoa more than double over past week as death toll rises - National
The number of suspected cases of measles on the Pacific island of Samoa has more than doubled over the past week to 3,530 and deaths related to the outbreak rose to 48 from 20 a week ago, the country’s Ministry of Health said on Sunday.
Samoa has become vulnerable to measles outbreaks as the number of people becoming immunized has declined with the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying vaccine coverage is just about 31 per cent.
[...] The government started a mandatory vaccination program on Nov. 20 after declaring a state of emergency due to the outbreak. The health ministry said in its statement that 57,132 people have since been vaccinated.
Schools and universities have been closed and most public gatherings banned on the island state of just 200,000, located south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand.
Of the 48 deaths, 44 where among children under the age of four. Since Saturday, there have been 173 new cases of measles recorded and four people have died.
Neighboring New Zealand and a number of other countries and organizations, including the U.N. agency UNICEF, have delivered thousands of vaccines, medical supplies and have sent medical personnel to help with the outbreak.
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At least 63 people, most of them children, have died since the outbreak began in mid-October and the country on Friday entered a second day of lockdown as it administers compulsory vaccinations in a desperate bid to stop the virus.
Al Jazeera's Jessica Washington, reporting from the Samoan capital, Apia, on Friday said that so far, an estimated 16,000 people have been vaccinated during the first day of the mass immunisation on Thursday.
[...]"The anti-vaxxers, unfortunately, have been slowing us down," he told TVNZ.
"We've had children who have passed away after coming to the hospital as a last resort, and then we find out the anti-vaccine message has got to their families and that's why they've kept these kids at home," he said.
He warned anti-vaxxers "don't get in the way, don't contribute to the deaths".
"We will advise police to act when we have no choice," Attorney General Lemalu Hermann Retzlaff added in a statement.
The government-backed its tough rhetoric by arresting vocal anti-vaccination campaigner Edwin Tamasese late on Thursday and charging him with incitement.
Officials said Tamasese had been warned about his activities previously but posted a message to social media regarding the immunisation drive saying: "I'll be here to mop up your mess. Enjoy your killing spree."
The government has additional powers after declaring a state of emergency to deal with the measles crisis and the Samoa Observer reported that Tamasese could face two years in jail.
It also said that US-based anti-vaxxers were swamping government websites with material that Tupai described as "nonsense".
He said the first day of the shutdown was a success, with more than 10,000 people, or five percent of the entire 200,000 population, receiving their jabs.
Previously:
Samoa Shuts Down in Unprecedented Battle Against Measles
Measles Cases in Samoa More Than Double Over Past Week as Death Toll Rises
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:11AM
Children who die of measles don't get autism I guess...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:37AM
Dumb-asses got what they deserved.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:41AM (13 children)
Turns out about three in ten Samoans are suddenly feeling safe and smug in that knowledge.
Dick-move jokes aside, I find things like this very frustrating. We have vaccines, we have no reason in this day and age to have issues like this arise, yet here we go again.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday December 03 2019, @05:22AM (12 children)
The vaccine is not that effective with so many other people not having the vaccine. It's better than nothing, but some of the vaccinated people will surely catch measles.
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:10AM (11 children)
It's a very very rare case but the vaccine can mutate and give you measels.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:37AM (8 children)
Truly khallow has no understanding of microbiology, immunity, or vaccination. It is only if you can reduce it to a market function, like renting out a backhoe to Samoans, who might get measles, that the khallow could comprehend.
OK, I feel generous. You idiot khallow! Pay attention! You are a very bad student! Here we go: herd immunity is achieved when enough of the population is innoculated to stop the spread of the pathogen, to (here is the important part) the unvaccinated. So the issue is not, and never was, that those who were innoculated were at risk of contracting the contagion, they were not. It is the non-vaccinated that were protected by sufficient vaccination, and so they are the ones who die when herd immunity is not achieved due to stupid khallow-like mother-wankers convincing people to not vaccinate their kids. Now they are dead, and it is all your libertariantard ass's fault.
I hope you die in a cholera epidemic.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Mykl on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:20AM (7 children)
Bzzzt. Sorry, Aristarchus, you fail hard this time. A small proportion of vaccinated people can be infected. But don't take my word for it, listen to the World Health Organisation [who.int]:
Important note: It's still far better to be vaccinated!
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday December 03 2019, @11:05AM
Absolutely. A 1% chance of being infected during an outbreak beats a near 100% chance! Also, usually when someone who has been vaccinated does get infected, the course of the disease is milder (Dengue vaccine is alleged to have the opposite effect).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @11:16AM (3 children)
Which makes his point even more valid and important. Since effective vaccines are not 100% for same reasons that you can get measles multiple times for the same reason (your immune system fails to remember properly), it's even more important that everyone is vaccinated against these diseases. In case of measles, you need about 95+% vaccination rates to prevent disease from living in the population.
Living in a population means it becomes endemic. Like before vaccines when millions of people got measles every year and thousands died and more had lifelong complications.
The anti-vaxers are the main contributing factor to these disease outbreaks that can kill you or your children or elderly, even if you are vaccinated. That's just plain math. This is why these vaccines need to be made mandatory.
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Tuesday December 03 2019, @01:25PM (2 children)
The harder he fails, the more valid his point? Is George Lucas writing these scripts?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:11PM
Actually there is an online internet action group (similar to JTRIG) with some pretty serious funding from industry. So yeah it might be George Lucus.
(Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:52PM
"You can't win,
Vaderkhallow!. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:51PM (1 child)
I don't think he was claiming there is zero chance of catching the measles when vaccinated. Everybody knows vaccines aren't 100% effective.
He was rebutting this claim, by my reading: "the vaccine can mutate and give you measels."
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday December 03 2019, @10:38PM
Aristarchus did think that vaccines are 100% effective:
He goes on to say that the risk is only to those who were unvaccinated.
This is the main problem with anti-vaxxers. If they were only endangering themselves and their families, that might be one thing. But their refusal to vaccinate can put my kids at risk even though they have been vaccinated. Anti-vaxxers are truly selfish parasites who rely on the efforts of others to protect themselves and their kids, while endangering everybody else in the process.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:52PM (1 child)
It's a very very rare case, but you could die in an automobile accident. Therefore we should eliminate automobiles.
It's a very very rare case, but some people die as a result of natural gas. Therefore we should eliminate natural gas as an inexpensive convenient efficient source of energy.
It's a very very rare case, but space satellites could come crashing down on your head. We must eliminate all satellites.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 04 2019, @02:53AM
That last one reminded me of one of my favorite shows [wikipedia.org]. Gotta watch out for the toilet seats.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Pav on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:46AM (9 children)
...that the problem is malnourishment.
Apparently zero kids above and equal to the average weight have died, a small percentage of those in the next 10% down, with most death in the smallest kids. I'm sure some frantic statistical analysis and on-the-fly theorising went on to come to THAT conclusion.
Forget that small kids can be well nourished etc... etc... Those aren't the droids you're looking for.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:59AM (8 children)
Jan 2019:
https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=29667&page=1&cid=788422#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
*Looks at Calendar*
This is news for retards. Cases will continue to increase until about April. You will keep flinging your bs around like a monkey surprised at the eclipse it does not comprehend.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:12AM (4 children)
Also, a 2% death rate is very high for measles. Something else is going on, wouldn't surprise me if they are just saying any child that died in their custody who said they were unvaccinated was due to measles.
(Score: 4, Informative) by HiThere on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:15AM (3 children)
No. These aren't people whose ancestors survived measles for thousands of generations. Measles came to the pacific islands with the European sailing ships. So that's not a high death rate, it's a low one. Probably a lot of race-mixing has happened to get it that low.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:04AM
WTF? Race mixing?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:51PM (1 child)
Where in the world did you get this crackpot race mixing story?
Measles mortality tastes dropped 100 fold in the UK and US from 10/100k to .1 per 100k between 1910 and 1960: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1522578/ [nih.gov]
Was this due to race mixing too?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday December 04 2019, @03:59AM
If you think there wasn't race mixing, you need to explain the Hawaiian islanders who are a mix of (mainly) polynesian, oriental, and caucasian. On other islands the mixes were different in detail.
As for the "high death rate", try this: https://timelines.issarice.com/wiki/Timeline_of_measles [issarice.com]
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Mykl on Tuesday December 03 2019, @04:21AM (2 children)
Kids dying of heat stress from being locked in cars is also a seasonal phenomenon. That doesn't mean that we can't take steps to reduce the number during the 'peak season'.
Your comment was so dumb it hurt. What you are effectively saying is that we should do nothing about seasonal health-affecting issues and just accept them as-is. Do not send to know for whom the retard bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:48AM (1 child)
Yes, "take measures" to "mix the races". But you arent nazi.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @10:41PM
HiThere was the one that mentioned 'race mixing', not Mykl. At least vent your outrage at the right poster.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:27AM
Wait, is this another one of those right-wing dog-whistle down-low racist submits? I did not know that Runaway was racist against Samoans. Must be the Tulsi Gabbard thing, or the Girl Scout Cookies. Runaway, seek professional help, or die soon.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:56AM (6 children)
While Samoa already had a lower-than-acceptable vaccination rate by far, it apparently plummeted further after two died in 2018 due to MMR vaccines being prepared using a muscle relaxant rather than water [bbc.com]. More oddly, neighboring islands like Tonga have a 99% vaccine rate; it's apparently just Samoa that's having serious issues with non-vaccination, which makes me wonder whether the incident was possibly an intentional effort to sabotage the vaccine program.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @11:22AM (5 children)
Don't assume malice where idiocy is enough. We live in a world full of idiots. Just look how many people drink and then drive. You can't fix stupid.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 03 2019, @02:56PM (4 children)
Idiocy is easily determined by a bit of investigation. Otherwise always assume malice when there is no evidence of idiocy. Welcome to the 21st century.
Docker is static linking for millennials
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @03:26PM (3 children)
So not injecting your kid with vaccines is child abuse, but sexually mutilating them and injecting them with a cocktail of hormones is not?
https://summit.news/2019/12/02/britains-first-transgender-couple-to-allow-their-5-year-old-child-to-begin-transition/ [summit.news]
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:03PM
Welcome to 2020, stop being intolerant and take the drugs
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday December 03 2019, @06:56PM (1 child)
You try to compare two things that are not comparable which is a fatal compile error.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 03 2019, @08:57PM
The two things are both performing medical procedures on children.