What is Noma?

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Noma is an infectious but non-contagious bacterial disease that starts as an inflammation of the gums, similar to a small month ulcer. The infection destroys the bone and tissue very quickly – over a matter of days – affecting the jaw, lips, cheeks, nose or eyes, depending on where the infection starts. Noma mostly affects children under five-years-old who are living in poverty. Grema lives with his family in a city in Yobe state, Nigeria. When his young son Mohammed, two-years-old, got sick, they didn’t know that it was noma and they didn’t know where to find help.