Fresh lead poisoning outbreak kills 21 in Niger

The federal government has confirmed the death of 28 children in a fresh outbreak of lead poisoning in Niger state.

According to NAN, the latest incident brings the number of deaths from lead poisoning in the country to 191, 139 of whom are children.

A total of 420 cases were recorded in Zamfara and Niger states.

Briefing newsmen on the latest development in Abuja, Fidelis Nwankwo, minister of state for health, said 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,” he 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 (WHO).

But he said the federal government had adopted an eight-point strategy to tackle the situation after receiving a report from the Niger state 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,” he said.

“We have also commenced the process of incident command structure to enhance coordination of the outbreak response, as well as mobilisation of health facilities in Niger and Zamfara states to commence chelation of clinically-ill children in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.”

The last lead poisoning case was recorded in Zamfara between March and June 2010. The 355 cases led to the death of 163 people, including 111 children.