In August, the Jigawa government and malaria partners will distribute about 3.2 million free insecticide-treated Nets (ITNs) to households in the state’s 26 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
The Malaria Control Programme Officer in the state, Bilya Haruna, disclosed this at a one-day orientation programme on the malaria campaign for the media, held on Monday in Dutse.
The Jigawa Government is carrying out the exercise, in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme, Malaria Consortium, Catholic Relief Services and BASF (the net manufacturing firm).
The programme is funded by the Global Fund Malaria Project.
Haruna described the campaign as an integration of the distribution of the ITNs and Seasonal Malaria Chemotherapy to eliminate malaria in the state.
He also said that over 6.8 doses of Sulfadoxin-Pyrimethamine with AmodiaQuine (SPAQ) would be administered to eligible children, aged three to 59 months, as malaria prevention drugs.
“Jigawa State Government and malaria partners will be distributing about 3.2 million free ITNs to households across 26 LGAs, in 288 wards and 11,090 communities from August 9 to August 13.
“Free malaria preventive medicines will also be administered to children aged 3 to 59 months from July to October in all the 27 LGAs, wards, communities and households,” Haruna said.
He said that the distribution strategy was based on malaria prevalence and vulnerability index as available evidence from malaria data.
According to him, the 2024 ITNs mass campaign, therefore, focuses on households mostly in rural areas, where people are more vulnerable to malaria and are at risk of death from the disease.
In a remark, Mr Rulwan Muhammad of the Malaria Consortium said that distributing ITNs would be a double-phase approach.
He said there would be a “mobilisation in the household then onward distribution at designated distribution points”, while the SPAQ administration would be a household door-to-door approach.
Muhammad further said that the campaign would be led by the state Ministry of Health, through the state and National Malaria Elimination Program, while the Malaria Consortium is an implementing partner.
