The Samoa measles crisis appears to have ended with the most recent measles related death reported on 5 January.

Samoa’s Government confirmed that there was a total of 83 deaths since the outbreak began in October. Most of the victims were young children and infants. A total of 5,697 people were infected by measles.

The deadly epidemic occurred because the country had a low vaccination rate. A widespread distrust of vaccines is being blamed for the low vaccination rates, attributed to an incident in 2018 when two children died at a Samoan hospital soon after being injected with anti-measles vaccines.

In response to the 2018 deaths, Samoa's government suspended the country’s vaccination programme for 10 months, despite advice from the World Health Organization that the country immediately restart the programme. The Samoan Government has now come under intense scrutiny for its decision to suspend the programme.

An investigation found that two deaths in 2018 were the result of human error as the two nurses had mixed the vaccines with a muscle relaxant instead of water – making it deadly.

An active anti-vaccination campaign in Samoa also discouraged the public from being vaccinated, and anti-vaxxers continued to dissuade the public during the peak of the outbreak.