by Olatunji Saliu
ABUJA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- An emergency meeting to discuss a possible solution to Lassa fever outbreak opened in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Tuesday, as the death toll hit 110 barely a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed a record high laboratory-confirmed cases in the country.
Thirty-five confirmed new cases and 40 fresh suspected infections have been recorded across 18 states of the West African country in the past one week, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) said in a statement late Monday.
The NCDC said it has recorded 1,121 suspected cases since the beginning of the year, out of which 353 are confirmed positive and only eight are probable. A total of 723 cases are negative and 37 are awaiting laboratory results.
The acute viral hemorrhagic fever has been reported in 18 states since the first case was detected on Jan. 1.
Three southern states, Edo, Ondo, and Ebonyi, have been the most affected, reporting at least 85 percent of the cases, the NCDC said.
The southern state of Imo and the central state of Nasarawa have also recorded a high number of cases so far.
Health officials in the five most affected states in southern and central Nigeria were summoned to the meeting.
Health minister Isaac Adewole on Monday told reporters that Nigeria will check the spread of Lassa fever across the country with a vaccine.
Adewole said the vaccine will soon be received but declined to give details of where it is coming from.
"We are doing everything possible to fight and address the outbreak of Lassa fever on all fronts," the minister said.
Humans usually become infected with the Lassa virus from exposure to urine or feces of infected mastomys rats. Other than common preventive measures such as washing hands regularly, the WHO has also recommended keeping cats.
Lassa fever is endemic to several West African countries. Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone also reported cases in the past month.
