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Health team to investigate measles outbreak

    ABIDJAN

    A government health team is to investigate reports of a measles and meningitis outbreak in Nigeria's northwestern Sokoto State, a Health Ministry official told IRIN on Friday.

    She said news reports that at least 100 children had died of measles and 30 of meningitis in the past two weeks "needed to be investigated".

    Rumours in northern Nigeria that vaccines distributed by western agencies might contain harmful agents have led to a drop in immunisation levels, news reports said. In January the third in a series of National Immunisation Days against polio organized by UNICEF encountered resistance in parts of the north. Immunisation officials said they were turned back by families who feared that the polio vaccines contained the HIV virus and birth control agents, leaving a number of children unvaccinated.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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