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Nigeria

You are viewing all content tagged Nigeria.  You can also read an overview of MSF's work in Nigeria.

Press Release | April 23, 2013

Nigeria: MSF Treats Children for Lead Poisoning After Long Delay in Clean-Up

MSF is finally able to treat children in the village of Bagega now that a long-delayed program to remediate lead contamination is underway.

Press Coverage | December 7, 2012

NPR's Health Blog: Nigeria Pressured To Clean Up Lead-Contaminated Villages

Human rights activists are pressuring the government of Nigeria to fulfill its promise to remediate lead contamination from gold mines in Zamfara District. MSF's Ivan Gayton warns that the delay is preventing treatment to hundreds of children.

Special Report | November 15, 2012

Time Is Running Out: Zamfara State Lead Poisoning Crisis

This six-month progress report reviews the steps taken to achieve the Action Plan agreed by delegates at the International Conference on Lead Poisoning. It finds that on nearly all agreed action points, very little has materialized.

Press Release | November 15, 2012

Time Running Out for Nigeria Lead Poisoning Victims

The Nigerian government has failed to release funds needed to remove lead from homes in a northern area of Nigeria, where hundreds of children have fallen ill or died from lead poisoning since 2010.

Field News | November 2, 2012

MSF Responds to Floods in Nigeria

After severe floods hit eastern Nigeria in September, MSF provided medical assistance and distributed aid kits to populations in need.

Press Coverage | October 4, 2012

NPR: In Nigerian Gold Rush, Lead Poisons Thousands of Children

MSF is responding to one of the worst cases of environmental lead poisoning in recent history.

Press Coverage | October 2, 2012

NPR's Health Blog: Reporting On Lead Poisoning In Nigeria

NPR's Jason Beaubien blogs about MSF's work to treat children poisoned by lead from gold mines in northwestern Nigeria.

Press Release | May 11, 2012

Nigeria Lead Poisoning Crisis—Now Is the Time for Action

The Nigerian government must commit significant resources to respond to a lead poisoning epidemic in Zamfara State, which has sickened thousands of children since 2010. 

Briefing Documents | May 9, 2012

Lead Poisoning Crisis in Zamfara State, Northern Nigeria

MSF is a central player in treating lead poisoning in Zamfara state, and is responding to the acute phase of this emergency.

Press Coverage | March 27, 2012

The Oakland Press: Ferndale nurse returns from health mission in Nigeria with Doctors Without Borders program

Kate Pittel always has had a passion for helping others and traveling the world. The Ferndale nurse found the perfect opportunity in the Doctors Without Borders program, where she volunteered for the organization’s fistula program in Nigeria.

Field News | March 1, 2011

MSF Treats Women with Fistulas And Works to Prevent Them

Obstetric fistulas are one of the most serious consequences of obstructed labor. An estimated 2 million women in developing countries are living with fistulas, many on the margins of society.

Alert Article | January 31, 2011

Field Journal: Nigeria

Dallas-based nurse Kaci Hickox began working with MSF in 2007. Last March, she was sent to Nigeria to be the Doctors Without Border/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency medical team leader following outbreaks of measles and meningitis. Two months later, however, she found herself in the middle of the organization’s first-ever response to lead poisoning and an international effort to assist the Nigerian authorities that came to include the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

Press Release | January 4, 2011

Statement: Pfizer Falsely Claims MSF Involvement in the Company's Unethical 1996 Drug Trials in Nigeria

In a US diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks, a Pfizer official wrongfully claims MSF was involved in the company's unethical drug trial in Nigeria in 1996, a falsehood Pfizer should correct.

Field News | December 1, 2010

Nigeria: Providing Care in the Slums of Lagos

MSF is providing free medical care in the Lagos slums, where people struggle to make a living in overcrowded conditions and few can afford to see a doctor.

Press Coverage | October 20, 2010

CNN: Aid groups say lead poisoning has killed 400 children in Nigeria

As many as 400 children have died of lead poisoning-related illnesses in Nigeria since March, two international aid groups say, and as many as 30,000 people could be affected by lead contamination.The deaths occurred predominantly in children under the age of 5 in the state of Zamfara, according to Lauren Cooney, the emergency manager for Medecins Sans Frontieres. The group is also known by its English name, Doctors without Borders.

Field News | October 8, 2010

Nigeria: Coordinated Effort Needed to Prevent More Lead Poisoning

Treatment provided is futile if children return to contaminated sites and continue to be exposed to high lead levels. Villages known to be contaminated must urgently be cleaned up, so that exposure to lead is prevented.

Field News | October 5, 2010

Nigeria: Lead Poisoning Continues to Affect Hundreds of Children in the Northwest

MSF has treated 400 children for lead poisoning in Zamfara State and is currently treating 100 more.

Field News | September 27, 2010

Cholera: MSF Intervenes After Outbreaks Hit Four West African Nations

MSF has set up treatment centers in response to cholera outbreaks in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.

Field News | September 17, 2010

Nigeria: 100,000 Displaced by Flooding in the North

MSF is surveying the impact and distributing relief items to people displaced by floods that overwhelmed a dam on the Rima River.

Voice from the Field | September 13, 2010

Floods in Nigeria: 'All their homes, crops, and food destroyed'

"Already, we’ve had reports of something like 25 to 30 villages that have been completely swamped by this water."

Press Coverage | September 10, 2010

Associated Press (Time.com): Rains spread cholera in West Africa

Patients jammed rudimentary clinics and health workers in surgical masks sprayed anti-bacterial solution on muddy paths as the government struggled to contain a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 800 Nigerians in two months.

Field News | July 15, 2010

Nigeria: MSF Continues To Help Children With Lead Poisoning

In northwestern Nigeria, MSF, in collaboration with the State Ministry of Health, continues to provide emergency treatment for children under fiver years old with lead poisoning. The cleaning up of contaminted sights remains critical to treatment activities.

Field News | June 14, 2010

Nigeria: MSF Helps Treat Children With Lead Poisoning

In northwestern Nigeria, MSF and the Nigerian health authorities have started treating 50 children who are sick with lead poisoning. The poisoning is caused by local mining practices and as many  as 10,000 people may be affected. 

Field News | October 14, 2009

Nigeria: MSF Treats Victims Wounded in Fighting at Port Harcourt Waterfront

On Monday, October 12, MSF teams received patients reportedly injured in a demonstration against the demolition of the Bundu-Ama waterfront area in Port Harcourt.

Field News | May 15, 2009

West Africa: Major Meningitis Epidemic Nears End

During the last four months, MSF teams in cooperation with the national health officials have been moving quickly, following the epidemic trend, to help treat tens of thousands of patients and to proceed swiftly on a massive vaccination campaign for 7.5 million people.

Field News | April 29, 2009

Nigeria: Meningitis Continues to Take a Toll

This year’s meningitis outbreak in northern Nigeria has already led to the deaths of over 1,500 people. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in cooperation with the Nigerian Ministry of Health, is carrying out a mass vaccination campaign as well as undertaking the very important task of treating the patients who are suffering from the disease.

Field News | April 29, 2009

West Africa Hit By Worst Meningitis Epidemic in Years

More than 1,900 people affected by meningitis have died since the beginning of this year in an area of sub-Saharan Africa known as the meningitis belt. In Nigeria, Niger and Chad alone, MSF medical teams have treated more than 56,000 sick patients. The organization is currently vaccinating a total population of more than seven million in the three countries, the biggest vaccination campaign MSF has ever carried out.

Field News | April 17, 2009

West Africa: MSF Targets 8 Million People in Meningitis Vaccination Campaign

Several countries in West Africa are facing a major meningitis epidemic. In Nigeria, this is the worst meningitis epidemic the country has experienced since 1996.

Field News | April 1, 2009

MSF to Begin Meningitis Vaccination Campaign in West Africa

Meningitis, a disease responsible for thousands of deaths in Africa, is currently spreading in several West African countries. While ensuring quick access to treatment for those already infected, MSF is also starting mass vaccination campaigns in Nigeria and Niger and is closely following the situation in other countries in the region. MSF is planning to vaccinate between 4 million and 5 million people against meningitis.

Field News | December 5, 2008

Nigeria: Assessing the Needs After Riots in Jos

Following the post-electoral riots in Jos, Plateau State, where 300 people were reported killed, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) conducted an exploratory assessment and provided assistance to hospitals and clinics.

Field News | September 16, 2008

MSF Grieves Death of Colleague in Abuja, Nigeria

Bradley Burlingham, a member of the MSF team in Nigeria, died in a tragic accident just as he was beginning his first assignment with MSF. MSF’s deepest sympathies are with Brad’s family during this very painful time.

Field News | August 17, 2007

MSF Trauma Center Admits 71 Gunshot Victims Over Two Weeks in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been managing this 70-bed trauma center since October 2005. Port Harcourt is located in the heart of Nigeria's densely populated, oil-rich Niger Delta region, where the struggle to gain power and control natural resources has sparked sporadic and deadly outbreaks of violence among a fragmented network of armed groups. Michael Mills, field coordinator for MSF in Port Harcourt, and Dr. Julie Wynne, a surgeon working in Teme hospital, talk about the recent upsurge of violence.

Field News | June 7, 2007

Clinical Trials in Africa: Ethical Research Needed on Diseases

With the Nigerian government filing a lawsuit against the U.S. drug company, Pfizer, for clinical trials it conducted during the 1996 meningitis epidemic in Nigeria, Dr. Jean-Hervé Bradol, president of the French section of Médecins Sans Frontières, reviews MSF’s work in Nigeria that year. He emphasizes the need for more clinical research that addresses the lack of treatment options for people in Africa.

Field News | May 8, 2007

Providing Emergency Medical Care to Victims of Violence in the Niger Delta

In Nigeria's densely populated, oil-rich Niger Delta region, the struggle to control power and natural resources has sparked sporadic and deadly outbreaks of violence among a fragmented network of political and criminal armed groups. The overall lack of functioning and accessible emergency medical services in the region prompted MSF to open a trauma center in October 2005 at the 70-bed Teme Hospital in Port Harcourt, the bustling capital city of Rivers state.

Field News | January 28, 2006

Nigeria: "Outside it's like a normal city"

From July 2005 to January 2006, medical teams from MSF treated nearly 13,000 severely malnourished children at one stabilization center and 12 outpatient therapeutic feeding sites in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina.

Field News | December 12, 2005

Two MSF Staff Killed in Plane Crash in Nigeria

It is with great sadness that Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) learned of the death of two of its aid workers in the airline crash which occurred in Nigeria on Saturday December 10, 2005. Hawah Kamara, 49 years of age, and Thomas Lamy, 30 years of age, were two of the passengers who perished in the crash. They had left the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to go to Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria, where MSF has a surgical program.

Field News | August 4, 2005

Malnutrition in Northern Nigeria: "Without medical support hundreds of children might die."

Following an outbreak of measles in Borno state, northern Nigeria, in March 2005, MSF conducted an emergency intervention. While the number of measles cases decreased, the nutritional status in the area was found to be of great concern, notably among small children.

Field News | October 12, 1999

News for the Week of October 12, 1999

Field News | May 24, 1999

News for the Week of May 24, 1999

Field News | May 10, 1999

News for the Week of May 10, 1999

Nigeria