Reports from a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project show what could be an effective way to reduce lead levels in blood.

Lead can reach high concentrations in the body for a number of reasons, such as in the city of Mt Isa in Queensland, where local mining emissions cause elevated lead levels and poisoning in the population. 

International aid group MSF initiated a program in 2010 to reduce lead poisoning in children caused by gold mining in the Zamfara State of Nigeria.

The contamination killed an estimated 400 children in the 3 months before chelation therapy was provided.

Workers administered 3180 courses of dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) chelation therapy between 1 June 2010 and 30 June 2011 to 1,156 children under the age of five, and measured their venous blood lead levels before and after each course of DMSA.

The researchers found that, on average, treatment with DSMA was associated with a reduction in venous blood lead levels to 74.5% of the level at the start of the DMSA course.

Nine of these 1,156 children died during the period studied, with lead poisoning likely involved in three of these deaths.

The researchers report that no clinically severe adverse effects related to DMSA were seen during the study period, and no laboratory findings were recorded that required treatment discontinuation.

The authors of the study warn that their findings should not be used to reach any definitive conclusions about the effectiveness or safety of oral DMSA as a treatment for lead poisoning in young children, blood lead levels clearly decreased and the number of deaths was substantially reduced after the program was initiated.

“This experience with basic supportive care and chelation in a large paediatric cohort adds significantly to the evidence base for clinical management of epidemic lead poisoning, particularly in resource-poor settings,” the authors say.

The report is accessible here.