KANO, June 29: Seventy-seven per cent of the world's confirmed cases of polio are in Nigeria, where 257 cases of the wild polio virus have been recorded, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

In March Nigeria saw the "highest ever-recorded" monthly incidence of wild polio virus, with 85 confirmed cases across the country, a statement issued by WHO said. The same month, Kano State in northern Nigeria, which is at the epicentre of the world's fastest growing polio outbreak, sabotaged a United Nations-led campaign to eradicate the disease by refusing to take part in a west African immunization drive.

As of April, only six of Nigeria's 36 states - the southern states of Abia, Adamawa, Ebonyi, Edo, and Rivers, and the central state of Nasarawa - were polio-free, the text said.

The WHO representative in Nigeria, Mohamed Belhocine, confirmed the figures and expressed worry about the situation. "Unfortunately, those are our figures. We pay attention to the resumption of vaccination in Kano because it is the only way to have protection for all children.

"It is from there (Kano) that contamination spread to other children and it is because of that we have new polio cases," he said in a telephone interview. "The intense transmission of the polio disease in Nigeria continues despite the low transmission season. "High transmission season of polio disease occurs during rainy season when children get contact with contaminated water and food," said the WHO statement. -AFP