Mothers care for their sick children in front of the pediatric word at Rumbek General Hospital in Rumbek on Thursday, October 7, 2021 | Credit | Courtesy

Cases of malaria have overwhelmed the Rumbek General Hospital in Lakes State, a health official has said.

Mawet Bol, the registrar at the hospital, says the health facility has been handling an overwhelming number of patients since June.

Currently, Bol says the hospital – equipped with just 178 beds – is caring for nearly 1,000 malaria patients.

“We have now 940 in-patients. We even admit like three or four children in one bed,” he told Eye Radio on Thursday.

Bol appealed to the government and its health partners to help expand the hospital.

Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 260,000 African children under the age of five die from malaria annually.

Approximately 95% of the country is endemic for malaria, with high transmission in South Sudan throughout the year, according to South Sudan Medical Journal.

It says malaria accounts for 20-40% of all health facility visits, 30% of all hospital admissions, and is a main cause of death (Malaria Consortium).

On Wednesday, the UN World Health Organization recommended use of malaria vaccine among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions.

RTS,S/AS01 is the first, and to date, the only vaccine that has demonstrated it can significantly reduce malaria, and life-threatening severe malaria, in young African children.

WHO bases its recommendation on results from an ongoing pilot program in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019.