6 Dec 2017

Call for Samoa's schools to close during dengue outbreak

9:29 am on 6 December 2017

Samoa opposition MP, Olo Fiti Va'ai, says the government needs to shut schools during a dengue fever outbreak or children will die.

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Photo: 123RF

Last month, the Ministry of Health said the public shouldn't panic over type two dengue fever found in the country.

Olo told the Samoa Observer after visiting Moto'otua hospital he was alarmed at high numbers of school children who have contracted the virus from other students.

He said the hospital was overcrowded and the government needed to step in and close schools before the situation escalated.

In August the Ministry of Health issued an alert over another dengue fever outbreak involving two suspected deaths.

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