The United States military is donating 30,000 doses of surplus flu vaccine to U.S. territories and small island states in the Pacific, including American Samoa and Palau.
The vaccine doses were gathered from across the military and has been stored at Tripler Army Medical Centre in Hawaii.
Hawaiian Airlines is delivering the doses to American Samoa.
Continental Airlines is carrying the remainder to the Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, Guam and the Marshall Islands.
Tripler Army Medical Centre says influenza is a year-round disease in the tropics so the vaccine will be useful even though flu season is ending in the 50 states.
The doses are worth about 260,000 US dollars.
