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Medical experts warn Samoans against heeding anti-vax messages

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A child receives a measles vaccination.(Beawiharta: Reuters - file photo)

Medical experts are warning Samoans against heeding anti-vax messages spread by social media influencers amid a deadly measles outbreak in the Pacific nation that has so far claimed 39 lives since late October — most of them children.

Samoa has declared a state of emergency and ruled vaccines compulsory, with authorities ordering anyone discouraging vaccinations to stop.

"Any person that actively discourages or prevents in any way members of the community from receiving their vaccination injection is hereby warned to cease immediately, and is similarly warned not to take any further action of that kind," the Government said in a statement.

The warnings came as Australian-Samoan influencer Taylor Winterstein made recent posts on Facebook and Instagram comparing Samoa's compulsory vaccination program as akin to "Nazi Germany".

A New Zealand health official prepares a measles vaccination at a clinic, putting a syringe into a small bottle.PHOTO: Experts say anti-vaccination rhetoric peddled on social media is "not correct". (Newshub via AP)

"Forcing a medical procedure on an entire country, especially one that is proving to be ineffective, dangerous and making the virus more deadly, is straight up barbaric," she wrote on Facebook.

"Facism [sic] is well and truly alive in Samoa."

The death toll in Samoa has risen sharply to 39, up from 25 as of Monday afternoon. When the death toll stood at 16, authorities said all but one were unvaccinated.

A total of 2,936 cases have been reported since the epidemic was declared in Samoa on October 16.

Before the Government rolled out a mass vaccination campaign a week ago, Samoa's health ministry said only two-thirds of its population had been immunised.

Since then almost 45,000 people have been vaccinated in a population of about 197,000.

Debunking the myths

Scientist Ian Mackay, who specialises in virology at the University of Queensland, said the rhetoric peddled on social media was "not correct".

Some claim a suggested alternative to getting vaccinated is high doses of Vitamin A, which experts say cannot prevent getting the measles infection and is not based on evidence.

"The only way to prevent getting measles — the disease — is to have the vaccine, and have both doses of it," he said.

"It's a safe vaccine. And that's what works. That's the only thing that works.

"No other personal medications or vitamin concoction or magical oil will prevent that virus from spreading. It's only vaccination."

The World Health Organisation's Nikki Turner said online misinformation claiming children could be treated with vitamins had "no scientific evidence" behind them, and that such claims were "conning" people from getting correct treatment, the Samoa Observer reported last week.

Ian Musgrave, a pharmacologist and toxicologist at University of Adelaide, said discouraging people from getting vaccines was "unconscionable".

"That's incredibly dangerous. At the moment we have a severe outbreak," he said.

"Especially when the actual risks of the vaccine is so low and the consequences of not vaccinating can be lethal and can result in significant hospitalisation.

"To make people afraid of such a safe vaccine as the MMR [Measles, Mumps and Rubella] in this time of crisis is, to me, unconscionable."

Ms Winterstein, who is married to former NRL player Frank Winterstein, who is now playing in France, runs a movement called 'Tay's Way'.

She cancelled planned seminars in Samoa earlier this year after backlash from the country's health ministry, which described the $200-ticketed events as a "public health threat".

In a statement, Ms Winterstein told the ABC she had never advised anyone not to vaccinate, but stood by her opposition to the Government's mandatory program.

But despite the statement, she this week described the MMR vaccine as "toxic" and has over many years distributed misleading information about vaccines.

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