Boko Haram insurgency: implications for public health

Type Journal Article - The Lancet
Title Boko Haram insurgency: implications for public health
Author(s)
Volume 385
Issue 9972
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2015
Page numbers 941
URL http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60207-0/fulltext
Abstract
Nigeria has been involved in a 6 year conflict with the group Boko Haram, responsible for many attacks, the most widely reported being the kidnap of 276 school girls in April, 2014. Boko Haram currently controls an area the size of Belgium across three states in northeast Nigeria: Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe. Health indices, such as maternal and child mortality are worst in the northeast region compared with elsewhere in Nigeria.1 The substantial gains Nigeria has made to control polio might be lost if these issues of health care are not urgently addressed in northeast Nigeria. In 2013, 53 cases of polio were recorded in Nigeria, more than half of which were in Borno and Yobe. In 2014, only one case was detected in Borno and Yobe.2 This change suggests that cases of polio might be going undetected because of the insurgency.

Related studies

»