measles

Fiji's Health Ministry said it was closely monitoring the outbreak, which has already moved to Samoa and Tonga.

The ministry is also rolling out training for health workers and urging the public to ensure children are vaccinated before going overseas, especially to New Zealand, Samoa, or Tonga.

"Outbreaks around the world, including in neighboring countries, puts us at risk of having travel related cases of measles," the ministry said in a statement Friday.

The World Health Organization data shows a rise in cases in almost every region of the world, with 30% more cases in 2017 than 2016.

Experts say complacency, collapsing health systems and a rise in fake news about the vaccine are behind the rise.

They say the measles vaccines can save millions of lives.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that in severe cases can lead to complications such as blindness, pneumonia and infection and swelling of the brain.

Researchers figured this out by looking at records of people who had a neurological disease called subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, or SSPE, in California between 1998 and 2016. The research was presented at IDWeek, an infectious-disease conference, in October.

SSPE is a neurological complication from measles in which, essentially, the body has an abnormal immune response to the virus.