Doctors fight Nigeria lead poisoning crisis

More than 160 villagers have died and hundreds more have been made ill in the remote villages of Nigeria's Zamfara state, officials said. The region is near the border with Niger, on the cusp of the Sahara Desert.

A spokeswoman for the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency's initial tests found extremely high levels of lead in the blood of adults and children, who are the most susceptible to the illness.

"The scope of the poisoning is unprecedented in CDC's work with lead poisoning worldwide," said agency spokeswoman Vivi Abrams.

"This is because of the severity of the poisoning, the number of fatalities, the large number of children and adults with symptomatic poisoning and the extent of the environmental contamination."

Nigerian officials asked for help last month from the CDC and other international agencies to help treat illnesses local authorities initially blamed on malaria.

Doctors Without Borders has set up a medical centre for children in the area and hopes to open another in coming weeks, said Lauren Cooney, emergency co-ordinator for the agency, which is also known by its French name, Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Those most severely affected are children aged five and younger, she said. "We had one little girl who is blind and deaf probably following a convulsion," Ms Cooney said. "We have some of the children who have lost all of their motor skills."

She said children came to the clinic with their mothers, who also

receive treatment as lead can pass through breast milk.

Officials estimate about 300 people are sick with lead poisoning and fear the number of victims could increase as lead in the soil contaminates villages where the mining took place. They also are concerned that seasonal rains that have begun sweeping across the arid state could wash lead into water supplies and other villages.

High levels of lead exposure can damage the brain and nervous system.