Samoa's Ministry of Health Headquarters. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Dominic Godfrey
Samoa's Ministry of Health has declared a whooping cough outbreak, with six cases of the disease confirmed as of Thursday.
The confirmation of one or more cases of whooping cough may warrant the declaration of an outbreak due to its infectious nature and potential public health impact, according to the Samoa Health Ordinance 1959 and the Samoa National Communicable Disease Surveillance and Control Guidelines 2020.
"This announcement follows a significant increase of reported cases presented in the main hospital at Moto'otua," the Ministry said.
"These confirmed cases fall within an age range of 3 weeks to 40 years, with a majority being less than year.
"We are waiting on additional suspected cases sent overseas for confirmation."
The Ministry confirmed this week its first case of whooping cough, also called pertussis, was a seven-week-old baby who has since recovered.
Whooping cough is characterised by severe coughing fits, which lead to difficulty breathing, vomiting, and exhaustion.
Samoa's health ministry said vulnerable or the most at-risk groups are infants under the age of six months old, pregnant women and individuals with underlying health conditions.
It said it is implementing measures to manage the outbreak, including increased surveillance and monitoring of reported cases. People are advised to maintain good hygiene practices and self-isolate at home if you are sick.
Acting Minister for Police and Prisons Faualo Harry Jeffrey Schuster told RNZ Pacific
"Our Public health sector has declared to take precaution incase of an outbreak of Whooping cough.
"They are monitoring all the young infants and children."
New Zealand has also declared an epidemic on the disease, the fourth since it became a notifiable disease in 1996.
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In the four weeks before the epidemic was announced, there were 263 cases of whooping cough - the highest number of cases over a month so far in 2024, with previous spikes in May, June and July.
Immunisation Advisory Centre founder Dr Nikki Turner said the epidemic would be "long and slow", and likely to last for 12 to 18 months.
Auckland University's associate professor of population health Sir Collin Tukuitonga said in New Zealand recent health figures show a high rate of hospital admissions for Pasifika presenting with whooping cough.
"I saw some figures here in Aotearoa in the last month: 28 percent of Pacific people who were reported to have had whooping cough ended up in hospital," Sir Collin said.
"I would just encourage and remind our people to get vaccinated if they haven't done so."
Health NZ said earlier this week while there's no known link of cases, there is a lot of travel between NZ, Australia and Samoa.
"Whooping cough has also been circulating in Australia, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and further afield, which is why we continue to urge people to make sure they are up to date with all their vaccinations before any international travel."
