Dozens of measles vaccines have been destroyed in Samoa for "safety reasons", the country's top health official says.
Photo: Sherry Yates/123RF
Sixty vaccines had to be destroyed because they were incorrectly stored at a private clinic that had not been authorised to administer doses.
Leausa Dr Take Naseri initially said 6000 vaccine doses but the ministry has today released a statement attributing that to a "slip of [the] tongue".
Earlier, Leausa said an investigation had been launched.
"We have to stop it for safety reasons ...because they were not stored in that specialised fridge where it has to maintain the temperature. So we have to maintain that standard."
Nurses who administered the vaccines were not registered to do so, Leausa said.
"There are a lot of complications of using a compromised vaccine, the long-term impacts, may have long-term implications on the people."
Vaccines from official sources in Samoa are available free of charge.
A live coldchain vaccine delivery of MMR in Samoa. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Jenny Meyer
Meanwhile, Samoa has vaccinated more than 17,000 people against measles in the past week.
On Monday, the Ministry of Health said there had been 25 deaths in the epidemic, all but one of them children under the age of four.
A mass immunisation effort is underway in Samoa, where vaccination against measles has been made mandatory under law.
Since the outbreak started in October, there have been 2194 cases, with 144 of those reported since Sunday.
There are 183 hospital patients with measles, including 20 children in intensive care units.
According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, which has delivered more than 110,000 doses of the measles vaccine to Samoa, just 26 percent of the country's population were fully immunised against measles last year.