Samoa has declared a state of emergency, closing all schools and cracking down on public gatherings, after several deaths linked to a measles outbreak that has spread across the Pacific islands.

The island state of just 200,000, halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths were reported.

Since then, at least six deaths, mostly infants under the age of 2, have been linked to the outbreak. Of the 716 suspected cases of measles, 40 percent required hospitalization.