Friday, April 12, 2013

Lead poisoning among Nigerian children

Amost all Nigerian children inthe Northern Nigerian village of Zamfara are now believed to have lead poisoning. Thanks to International medical aid group 'Doctors Without Borders' for their services across Nigeria in the treatment of children with lead poisoning.

Nigeria Children with lead poisoning
Children suffering from Lead Poisoning
Almost a year next month, the group disclosed more than 4,000 children in a village northwest Nigeria have suffered from lead poisoning and more than 1,500 received care.

Those children were mostly from Bajega village in Zamfara state.

The Geneva-based Doctors Without Borders spends over $5 million yearly to treat people affected by lead poisoning which has killed more than 450 children in northern Nigeria since 2010.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement that lead poisoning in Zamfara was one of the "worst such crises in modern history."

The deaths, affecting children living in villages and gold mines arose from an unusually high concentration of lead in the region's soil, HRW said.

Nigeria minister of state for health
Min of State for Health, Muhammed Pate

The funds released for the treatment and prevention of lead poisoning is yet to be discovered. Lead poisoning treatment are complicated and could take up to 50 years to slowly get rid of.

The minister of state for health Dr Muhammed Pate calls it a 'man made disaster' and blames it on 'illegal mining'

A year later the government are slowly working their way to fix the situation by replacing the soil.

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