Samoa has lifted a six-week state of emergency after the infection rate from a measles outbreak that has swept the country started to come under control.

The South Pacific nation has been gripped by the highly infectious disease, which has killed 81 people, most of them babies and young children, and sickened more than 5,600 others.

The government said in a statement late on Saturday that the emergency orders put in place last month, which included aggressive measures to contain the virus such as closing schools and restricting travel, had ended.

Measles cases are on the rise globally, including in wealthy nations such as the US and Germany, as some parents shun life-saving vaccines due to false theories suggesting links between childhood immunisations and autism.

Death and infection rates in Samoa started to slow in mid-December after a vaccine drive pushed immunisation rates towards 95%, the level aid agencies say is effective in creating “herd immunity” that can contain the disease.

Earlier in the year an outbreak of measles hit Auckland in New Zealand, a hub for travel to and from small Pacific islands. The disease soon found a highly susceptible population in Samoa which had far lower vaccination rates than its neighbours.