A report by Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) has shown that 735 children died of lead poisoning in Zamfara State in the last four years.

At a Stakeholders’ Town Hall meeting in Gusau organised by the Global Right and Partners for Justice, MSF Project Coordinator, Ms Danielle Wellington, said that from March 2010 when the outbreak started in Zamfara till date, MSF has enrolled no fewer than 5,395 children below the ages of five under the lead poisoning treatment programme. She disclosed that out of this number, 735 deaths were recorded.

Wellington said 2,070 victims were successfully treated while 1,450 children were still under treatment. She explained that after blood sampling and tests, 3,198 patients did not require full lead poisoning treatment.

She further explained that since the commencement of the MSF intervention in Zamfara, seven outreach clinics were established in Anka and Bukkuyum councils while an in-patient centre was also set up at the group’s Anka head office.

Other activities conducted by the group, according to Wellington, included data gathering and advocacy visits to health professionals, training of staffers of the state’s Ministry of Health and that of the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, intensive counseling to the local miners, especially those at the remediated villages, as well as use of health promotion messages and continued treatment of malaria.

The project coordinator appealed to the stakeholders, especially civil society organisations and the media, to mount pressure on the government to intensify the treatment of children after MSF exits from Zamfara in December 2014.

•Adapted from a Nigerian Pilot report. Photo shows Zamfara State Governor Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari.