Authorities in Samoa are investigating the circumstances of an infant’s death shortly after they received a routine vaccination.

The 14-week-old baby and their twin received their scheduled immunisations at a vaccination clinic in Moto’otua, in Upolu, on Saturday.

Six hours later, the child was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition, a Ministry of Health statement says.

Despite medical staff taking immediate action - including resuscitation - the baby was pronounced dead.

Authorities are now trying to piece together exactly what happened between the time the child was vaccinated and when they were eventually brought to the hospital six hours later.

Health officials confirmed that other infants - including the child’s twin sibling - who were vaccinated from the same batch of vaccines have not had any adverse reactions, been brought to hospital or reported to have suffered any medical concerns.

“The Ministry of Health continues to follow up closely with those families out of an abundance of care and caution and to provide needed support.”

It has also been confirmed that nurses who administered the vaccines to the affected infant had followed the standard procedures accordingly in the care, storage and administration of the vaccines.

Similar vaccination deaths in 2018

Despite the death, the health ministry is reassuring the public that vaccinations remain safe - after a similar incident occurred in July 2018, when two 1-year-old babies died shortly after receiving a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination at Safotu District Hospital, in Savaii.

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“We understand that the public may be concerned as to the cause of the unfortunate loss of life of this infant.

“We wish to reassure the public that the ministry is investigating this matter and continues to ensure the proper care, storage and administration of vaccines through intensive training, monitoring and evaluation to ensure the safety of our people to prevent incidents like the unfortunate deaths of the two infants in 2018.”

Two nurses involved in that incident later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were jailed.

It was ruled that the vaccines given to the two children had been mixed incorrectly - the results of which proved to be fatal.

Most of Samoa's measles fatalities in the 2019-2020 epidemic were young children or babies. Photo / Mike Scott

The 2018 deaths led to the Government putting a hold on its vaccination programme and a very real fear growing among the local community, as well as Samoans overseas, who became afraid to take their children to get an MMR vaccination.

The decision to hold the vaccination programme - despite advice from the World Health Organization to restart it - resulted in a large proportion of youngsters going unvaccinated.

When a measles epidemic happened in 2019, thousands of people, mostly young children, were struck with the highly contagious disease. By the end of the epidemic, in early 2020, just over 80 deaths were reported - the majority of them being babies and young children.

Current outbreaks in Samoa and American Samoa

The latest incident comes as there is a current flu outbreak in Samoa and a measles outbreak in neighbouring American Samoa.

Both outbreaks are affecting mostly children and have resulted in schools being closed in a bid to contain the spread of the flu in Samoa and measles in American Samoa.

The measles situation in American Samoa has also resulted in travel restrictions being imposed for anyone from the US territory entering Samoa.

Anyone flying in from American Samoa must be vaccinated against measles and show proof via a vaccine certificate before boarding.