by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News

TV1 in Samoa is reporting that two infants have died within minutes of receiving the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Tala Fou brings you breaking news on the death of two young children both aged 1-year-old from the villages of Safotu and Sasina in Savaii. Both children died within minutes of being vaccinated with the MMR vacine at Safotu Hospital on Friday morning the 6th of July.

Our News Reporter Alisa Faamaoni met with both families in Savaii today. The parents of the first child Marietta and Samuelu Tuisuesue of Sasina explained in detail to Tala Fou that within three minutes of their 1-year-old daughter Lannacallystah Samuelu being injected with the MMR vacine by a nurse she was dead. (Source.)

Two one-year old infants died minutes after being injected with MMR vaccine. The Samoan Government has confiscated all vaccine supplies to prevent any more vaccine injuries.

What is so tragic, and has this island nation in such an uproar, is that the parents of the second child who died had reportedly already learned about the first infant’s death a couple hours earlier and declined to have their child receive the same vaccine. The mother reports that the nurse administered the MMR vaccine against her consent, leading to the child’s immediate death upon receiving the vaccine.

The second family from Safotu is still coming to grips with the loss of their 1-year-old son Lameko Siu. The parents Punipuao and Si’u Timua arrived at the Safotu hospital with their son Lameko on Friday within two hours of the death of the first child once they became aware of what had happend the mother refused to allow her son to be vaccinated.

The mother claims that the nurse on duty persisted and without her consent vaccinated her son administering the MMR vaccine and within a minute he was dead. (Source.)

After the second death, government authorities immediately confiscated all the remaining doses of the MMR vaccine, and dismissed the medical staff, not only to apparently conduct an investigation, but for their own safety from an outraged public.

The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi, issued a statement about the tragic events and reported that, as a grandfather, one of his grandsons had previously suffered something similar, an apparent vaccine injury that he survived but now can no longer talk.