2nd December, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UNFPA Emergency Reproductive Health Kits arrive in measles-affected Samoa
Suva, Fiji
The Government of Samoa declared a state of emergency on 15 November due to the escalating measles outbreak.
The kits are part of a One UN response to the outbreak, at the request of the government. They include medicines, instruments and other commodities meant to support safe delivery, contraceptive use, STI treatment, and management of complications of pregnancy, among other purposes. The kits are pre-packaged and pre-positioned, ready for immediate dispatch to meet urgent requests.
UNFPA Pacific, with support from the Government of Australia, is working closely with the Samoa Ministry of Health, the Samoa Red Cross, the Samoa Family Health Association and UN sister agencies to provide life-saving sexual and reproductive health services, psychosocial support, information and referral support.
A humanitarian response specialist from the UNFPA Pacific head office in Fiji, has been dispatched to Samoa to support the UNFPA in-country team to orient Samoan health service providers to the reproductive health kits that will be used to support the increasing demand for maternity and emergency obstetric services.
An obstetrician/gynaecologist from UNFPA Pacific arrived in Samoa yesterday, to work with clinicians to maximise the response for pregnant women to manage the anticipated increase in complications of pregnancy, including premature delivery and low birthweight neonates.
Selected health facilities will be supported through the provision of reproductive health supplies, medical equipment and drugs to enhance their capacity to provide emergency obstetric care for pregnant women and new mothers and their babies.
Multi-purpose tents will also be prepositioned in Samoa in case there is a need to set up alternative maternity facilities.
Family planning counselling, along with access to condoms and other contraceptives will be integrated into the community awareness raising campaign to ensure that newly vaccinated women do not get pregnant during the following four-week period.
In Samoa and 13 other countries across the Pacific, UNFPA works with governments, other UN agencies, development partners and humanitarian organisations to ensure that the special needs of women of reproductive age are not left behind during emergencies.
For more details on UNFPA’s response to the Samoa measles outbreak, please contact:
UNFPA in Samoa:
Ana Maria Leal (leal@unfpa.org)
UNFPA Pacific in Suva, Fiji
Saira Shameem (shameem@unfpa.org)
Media contact:
Navinesh Kumar
Communications Analyst
UNFPA Pacific Sub-Regional Office
Email: nkumar@unfpa.org
Mobile: +679 993 2259
About UNFPA:
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. The organization was created in 1969, the same year the United Nations General Assembly declared “parents have the exclusive right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.” Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. UNFPA calls for the realization of sexual and reproductive rights for all and supports access to a wide range of sexual and reproductive health services – including voluntary family planning, maternal health care and comprehensive sexuality education.
UNFPA’s Pacific Sub-Regional Office located in Suva, Fiji, supports 14 countries and territories: the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. The office additionally provides technical assistance to Papua New Guinea.
