Malaria cases are on the rise in South Sudan’s Torit State, with more than 2,000 cases recorded by the main health facility since July, a local health official said.

Francis Iwa Andruga, the administrator of Torit State Hospital, told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that more than 2,000 malaria cases were recorded by the health facility since July.

“Children are very vulnerable, they get attacked quickly due to their low immune system and malaria is the leading disease among them because there have been very heavy rains this month,” Andruga said.

“In some communities, stagnant water breeds mosquitoes. Malaria has become a great challenge in these communities,” he added.

The official said the rise in malaria cases has drained the hospital’s resources, adding that some patients have been forced to share beds thus placing them at risk of acquiring communicable diseases.

“Sometimes, you find that we put two children on one bed due to lack of spacing. I think government should get some funds to build another structure that takes a number of beds to ease the problem of spacing,” he stressed.

Andruga blamed the rise in malaria cases on heavy rains in the state, urging the state government to lobby funds for constructing more wards for patients.

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites transmitted to people through bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.