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Nigerian officials try to contain measles

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Published: March. 30, 2008 at 11:26 AM

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 30 (UPI) -- Nigerian health officials have opened treatment centers to cope with a measles epidemic that has claimed 165 lives in the past three months.

Officials noted the death toll from the outbreak, which infected more than 3,000 people, could rise as they fear many cases go unreported throughout the country, Voice of America reported.

Fundamentalist Islamic clerics have called for a boycott against measles vaccinations in Nigeria saying the immunization was a plot by Western countries to make Muslim girls infertile.

As a result, health officials say more than 95 percent of the children infected by the disease were not immunized.

Halliru Idris, a health official in the northern Nigerian state of Katsina, said current vaccination campaigns have resulted in a "big drop" in the number of measles cases.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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