Life returns to normal in American Samoa despite active measles cases in community

American Samoa's epidemiologist Scott Anise said all 47 samples that have returned after nasopharyngeal testing have come back negative. Photo / 123rf

By Caleb Fotheringham of RNZ

The number of confirmed and probable measles cases have remained the same since May 4 in American Samoa, the territory’s Department of Health epidemiologist Scott Anise says.

The number remains at 54 probable and two confirmed cases.

Anise said all 47 samples that have returned after nasopharyngeal testing have come back negative.

However, the health department is waiting for blood tests of those same samples to return before any probable cases get reclassified.

“We are encouraged by the news of the negative tests,” Anise said.

“As soon as we start getting our serum samples back, we can start to take apart some of the probable cases and do a bit more investigation,” he said.

“The two positive cases that we got were on the serum tests, not the nasopharyngeal, and so we are waiting for those results before we comfortably say that maybe these probable [cases] were something else.”

After nasopharyngeal testing, some results came back positive for other diseases, like the common cold, Anise said.

He said close to 2000 measles vaccinations have been administered since mass vaccination campaigns started at the beginning of the outbreak late last month.

RNZ Pacific’s American Samoa correspondent Joyetter Feagaimaalii said life felt normal despite measles being present.

She said precautionary measures like wearing masks stopped being practised by a large number of the population after elementary and high schools returned at the beginning of last week.

“It is like [we’re] back to normal now. There [are] large gatherings - people are attending church, where there [are] hundreds of people in one building.”

She said people in the community were happy that schools had returned because of the high vaccination rate of 97 per cent.