Wellington (AFP)

The measles epidemic in Samoa has killed 15 people, including 14 young children, according to a new report announced Tuesday by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

The UN agency announced that the number of suspected cases of measles exceeded 1,000 in the Pacific archipelago, which declared a state of emergency and launched a mandatory vaccination campaign.

"The epidemic has killed 14 children under five and one adult," said Unicef, which is distributing more than 110,000 doses of vaccine in Samoa, a country of 200,000 people. A previous review reported seven deaths suspected of being due to measles.

The agency also sent vaccines to Tonga and Fiji.

UNICEF officials are also helping Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia to prepare for the eventuality of an outbreak.

Measles, after a dramatic decrease between 2000 and 2016 thanks to major vaccination campaigns, is now in a strong upsurge, mainly due to an attitude of defiance towards vaccines.

Measles remains a life-threatening disease. Before the arrival of vaccines in the 1970s, it killed 7 to 8 million children a year in the world.

Mistrust of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) combined vaccine was caused by a 1998 study that linked the vaccine with autism. However, it was quickly established that its author had falsified its results, and several studies have since shown that the vaccine does not increase the risk of autism.

© 2019 AFP