Doctors Without Borders has been doing some routine health work in northwestern Nigeria. This is a remote area, with dusty and mountainous terrain. People here are very poor. Most are farmers or miners who dig for precious minerals like gold.
The doctors discovered that 3 villages are in the midst of a horrible outbreak: 118 children (many of them younger than 5) are dead. Many more are sick, with symptoms including vomiting, abdominal pain, headache, and convulsions (sudden, violent, uncontrollable shaking).