The medical aid group, known by its French initials as MSF, said the surge has overwhelmed the health system and highlights the impact of widespread flooding and funding cuts for medical care in South Sudan.

Malaria admissions to the children’s ward increased in June through September, where up to 400 children were being admitted to the pediatric department with severe malaria each week, said the charity.

MSF raised a serious concern over the data which is more than double the numbers recorded in September last year at a health facility fraught with funding shortage that left it without medicines and staff.

“Every year, there is a surge in malaria cases during the rainy season in Aweil and we conduct seasonal preventive activities for tens of thousands of children,” said Mamman Mustapha, MSF’s head of mission in South Sudan.

“We opened testing and treatment centers so people can quickly be diagnosed and receive treatment, and we established a malaria ward inside the hospital with 72 beds. However, this year we have faced an exceptional situation and the hospital has been completely overwhelmed.”

MSF said although it increased the number of beds in the malaria ward to 94 in September, it was not enough to cope with the surge in admissions, and many patients were treated in the corridors.

In October, MSF said it has admitted an average of 43 children suffering from severe forms of malaria each day, with many requiring blood transfusions.

Since September, MSF has carried out an average of 14 blood transfusions for malaria each day, and at any one time, there have been an average of 140 children admitted in the hospital suffering from severe malaria.

“These are terrible statistics,” Mustapha said. “It should not be the case that so many children are ending up in the hospital with advanced forms of malaria when it can so easily be treated at a health clinic.”

MSF stated that the near collapse of primary health care system in Northern Bahr el Ghazal and the lack of access to home treatments has led to so many more children than usual requiring hospitalization to save their lives.

Malaria cases have also surged in other areas of South Sudan due to the earlier arrival of the rainy season this year, which has led to extensive flooding over many more months than usual, the international charity noted.

At least 41 people including dozens of children died from suspected malaria in Likwangole County in the past two weeks amid the disease outbreak, according to authorities in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

The National Ministry of Health has since vaccinated 26,000 children against malaria vaccines across 28 counties in six states in South Sudan, according to a senior health official.

George Awzenio Legge, the Director General of the Ministry of Health, said the first phase was launched in the states of Western and Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Warrap, Jonglei, Central Equatoria, and Eastern Equatoria.