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Nigeria

UN TEAM ARRIVES IN NIGERIA TO HELP AUTHORITIES COMBAT ACUTE LEAD POISONING

(Geneva/New York: 21 September 2010): The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is stepping up efforts to assist Nigerian authorities in combating an outbreak of acute lead poisoning, which has reportedly affected hundreds of children to date in northern Nigeria.

"This emergency affects young children and pregnant women the most," said Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. "The outbreak shows how closely human health and the environment are linked, in particular for the poor."

In addition to allocating US$ two million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) to respond to the outbreak, OCHA and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) have deployed a five member environmental emergency team at the request of the Nigerian authorities. The team will sample and analyse soil and water, and develop recommendations to help national authorities combat the problem as quickly as possible. A team of environmental emergency experts from the Netherlands is supporting the team. The UN team arrived in Abuja, Nigeria on Monday and will conclude their work by 7 October.

The response will involve medical care for the most severe cases of lead poisoning among children under five, and decontamination of houses and villages. Both are needed because medical treatment alone is ineffective if children return home to contaminated homes and are reexposed to lead. Many children over five as well as adults who have been tested in the affected areas also have extremely high levels of lead in their blood and may require treatment.

The medical response is being led by Médecins sans Frontières (MSF Holland), together with WHO and UNICEF in Nigeria, supporting local authorities and the Nigerian Ministry of Health.Abnormally high rates of death and illness among children have been recorded since the beginning of 2010 in the Local Government Areas of Bukkuyum and Anka in Zamfara State of northern Nigeria. Further investigations revealed that the cause is acute lead poisoning from the artisanal processing of lead-rich ore for gold extraction, taking place inside houses and compounds. Over 18,000 people have been affected and 200 children reportedly died as a result of the poisoning.

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, +1 917 3675126, mobile +1 347 2442106, bunker@un.org; Nicholas Reader, +1 212 963 4961, mobile +1 646 752 3117, reader@un.org; OCHA Geneva: Elisabeth Byrs, +41 79 4734570, byrs@un.org

OCHA press releases are available at http://ochaonline.un.org or www.reliefweb.int

For more information about CERF, please see http://cerf.un.org

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