28 Children Die Of Lead Poisoning In Niger State

The Federal Government has confirmed
the death of 28 children following a
fresh outbreak of lead poisoning in
Niger state.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that
the latest incident had brought the
number of deaths from lead poisoning
in the country to 191, including 139
children.
A total of 420 cases were recorded in
Zamfara and Niger states, respectively.
Briefing newsmen on the latest
development in Abuja, the Minister of
State for Health, Mr Fidelis Nwankwo,
said that 68 fresh cases of the lead
poisoning were recorded in Kawo and
Magiro villages of Rafi local government
area of the state.
“Sixty eight cases have been recorded
as at May 12, 2015, and 28 deaths had
occurred giving the case of fertility rate
of 43 per cent,” said Nwankwo.
According to him, all the deceased were
children below the age of five and
comprised 17 females and 11 males.
He said the affected children were
found to have a high serum lead level
between 17 and 22 times higher than
the acceptable limits established by the
World Health Organisation.
The minister, however, said that the
federal government adopted an eight-
point strategy to tackle the situation
upon receipt of the report from the
Niger Government.
Nwankwo listed the measures to include
advocacy meetings with the affected
community leaders on the dangers of
economic activities involving mining.
“We have commenced non-specific,
palliative treatment of the sick children
in Kagara hospital.
“We also commenced the process of
incident command structure to enhance
coordination of the outbreak response.
“Mobilisation of health facilities in
Niger and Zamfara states to commence
chelation of clinically ill children in
collaboration with relevant
stakeholders.
NAN recalls that the last lead poisoning
case was recorded in Zamfara between
March and June 2010, which claimed
163 lives, including 111 children. The
incident recorded 355 cases