Malaria is still claiming the lives of at least two people in Tanzania's west Kagera region where 290 people are hospitalized for malaria as of last week, according to reports reaching here on Monday.

Of the hospitalized patients, 237 are children under the age of five years. The hospital at the Rubya district has a bed capacity of 162.

The outbreak of a deadly strain of malaria has claimed the lives of 286 children under the age of seven between January and June this year in the region.

Children and pregnant women accounted for more than half of those who fell prey to the outbreak that was reported in two districts of the Kagera region in westernmost Tanzania bordering Lake Victoria.

A local report delivered to the country's health minister said that the number of cases of malaria infection among children under the age of five years rose from 650 recorded in January this year to 832 in March. The figure further rose to 1,448 cases in June.

The months of May and June are usually the rampant period of malaria infection in the country.

The region of Kagera was harassed by major outbreaks of malaria in the post-rainy season months in 1996, 1997, 2003, 2005 and this year.

Malaria is one of the three killer diseases in Tanzania, where HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are also killing lots of people each year.

Malaria claims on average the lives of some 100,000 people in Tanzania every year and of the fatality total 70,000 are children under the age of five.

Source: Xinhua