More than one million people have been infected with malaria in Uganda in the last two months, officials have said.
The health ministry has attributed the rapid rise partly to climate change, with the disease now appearing in regions that were previously malaria-free thanks to a mild climate.
This time of year is normally a peak malaria season, but prolonged June rains seem to have created an even more fertile breeding environment for the mosquitoes that transmit the infectious disease.
There has been a 40% increase in cases reported in the same period last year, according to a statement by the ministry.
The government said there had also been a reduction in use of mosquito bed-nets, as those distributed in 2017 had begun to age.
In an effort to stem rising cases, the Ugandan government distributed 38 million mosquito bed-nets to households across the country between February 2017 and March 2018.
Burundi, another East African country, is currently battling a malaria epidemic.
According to the UN, there have been nearly six million cases since January and more than 1,800 people have been killed by the disease this year.
-BBC
