HEALTH Minister Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete has confirmed that a member of the Tonga Women’s XV team was reported to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services to have suspected symptoms of measles.
As a result, the round one of the Women’s Championships game between Australia and Tonga that was scheduled to take place yesterday was cancelled.
Dr Waqainabete said the ministry had people on the ground to ensure that the measles outbreak was contained within Serua and Namosi.
“We have our health protection officers at the boarders, we also have the divisional medical officers and the subdivisional medical officer in Nadi, they are also in charge of our Ministry of Health’s assessments and vigilance at the airport,” he said.
Dr Waqainabete also said it was imperative to note that the ministry could not anticipate on the number of vaccines that a health centre or a hospital required.
He said this was because of the wide distribution of people in an area.
“The thing is with measles we have normal measles that we have to vaccinate for children and on top of that we have an extra 50,000 vaccines in which we set a priority.
“Six months ago we set a priority, the priority is for those that are flying out so now we have an influx of people coming wanting to get measles vaccines.
“People don’t call us and say you will get 50,000 people today needing vaccines so they have enough numbers for their population, but we ask our staff to accept them. If you’re going to a public institution, you don’t pay that is all part of the free health system that is in place.”
He also said the importation and transportation of measles vaccines would also take time.
“We are discussing with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to get extra vaccines this week and vaccines are not like on a cargo plane and that is every time you ask for 30,000 today it flies and drops, it is not like that.
“It takes seven to 14 days for it to arrive.”
