The number of malaria cases in the country has surpassed 700 so far this year, nearly doubling from a year ago.

According to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Sunday, a total of 719 cases of malaria have been reported as of October 14, up 95-point-four percent from a year earlier.

It is the first time in 12 years that the number of malaria cases in the country has exceeded 700 in a single year since 2011, when it posted 826 cases.

Out of the total cases for this year, 91-point-four percent, or 657 cases, were domestic transmissions, and 62 were infected overseas, mostly from Africa. Male patients accounted for 84-point-five percent of the domestic cases.

The nation reported more than 15-thousand cases of the mosquito-borne disease in 1970, but the number of cases decreased with malaria eradication projects and the nation declared the eradication of the disease in 1979. However, the disease re-emerged in 1993, and the nation has since reported hundreds of patients every year.

Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease resulting in high fever, shaking chills and flu-like symptoms.