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Samoa attempts door-to-door fight against measles

Samoa is grappling with a deadly outbreak of measles.

The highly contagious disease has killed more than sixty since October.

Many of them - babies or children under the age of four.

Now the government has imposed a shutdown.

And asked people to put up red flags on their doors to signal for help.

Medical teams are going door-to-door in a desperate attempt to provide vaccines to families.

The prime minister ordered a holiday to keep people indoors and contain the outbreak.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) SAMOAN PRIME MINISTER, TUILAEPA SAILELE MALIELEGAOI, SAYING:

"We have declared two days of holiday, so that everybody stays at home. No car should be on the roads, so as not to pose any problems for the fast movements of our teams, throughout the villages and throughout the country, as well to ensure that everybody stays at home."

This isn't just a battle against the disease.

An anti-vaccination movement in Samoa is making the fight more complicated.

Local vaccination rates have been slipping.

Officials blame fears after the deaths of two babies last year who had taken shots.

It was later found their vaccine was wrongly-mixed.

But it sparked warnings from anti-vaxxer groups.

Now, officials are racing to immunize children.

Doctor Christ Poynter says the situation is still dire - even after tens of thousands of shots.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR, CHRIS POYNTER, SAYING (PART OVERLAID WITH SHOT 7):

"Some of those children are dying in front us, in front of them and in front of other families in the intensive care unit."

The country declared a state of emergency in late October, following the first deaths.

More than 4,000 have been infected, in a population of just 200,000.

Nineteen-year-old Elsie Lolesio lost her daughter Noel to the disease.

She was only a year old.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MOTHER OF DECEASED CHILD, ELSIE LOLESIO, SAYING:

"It's very hard to lose a child. Sorry. She's gone and I'll never forget her. The way I tried to teach her how to talk."

Lolesio's nephew was the same age as her daughter.

They died within three days of each other.

Now they are buried - side by side.