The Borno State Government in collaboration with a Malarial Consortium in West and Central Africa, has distributed five million treated mosquito nets in tackling malaria among children and pregnant women in the state

The Director of Consortium on malaria in Africa, Maxwell Kolawale, disclosed over the weekend in Maiduguri that working with the state government on malaria interventions, include seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC).

Kolawale said the collaboration began in 2021 when the Malaria Consortium provided a one-year grant to support SMC efforts, with a commitment to ensure that all eligible children were covered irrespective of their place of residence.

He added that the effective implementation of the programme by the Borno State Ministry of Health and State Malaria Elimination Programme had helped create opportunities for expanded malaria interventions.

Kolawale said the ITN campaign was part of a comprehensive package of evidence-based interventions required to move closer to malaria elimination.

Prof. Baba Malam-Gana, the Commissioner of Health and Human Services, said more than 527,000 confirmed malaria cases were reported in health facilities across Borno in 2023.

He said the state government, working with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, National Malaria Elimination Programme and Malaria Consortium, would ensure the distribution of the nets across the state.

Gana said the nets were new-generation dual-acting nets selected because of mosquito resistance to older single-insecticide nets.

Rashida Abubakar of the National Malaria Elimination Programme said the 2025 Malaria Indicator Survey recorded 28 per cent malaria prevalence among children aged six to 59 months in Borno.

She said the success of the campaign would depend not only on the number of nets distributed but also on whether they reached the intended households and were properly used.

Alhaji Mohammed Aji, Chairman of Local Government Area, who spoke on behalf of the 27 councils, assured that the distribution would be monitored to prevent diversion and ensure adequate sensitisation on the proper use of the treated nets nets”