WHO trains Adamawa journalists on health, behavioural change reporting

On Apr 26, 2023

The World Health Organisation said it has trained no fewer than 53 journalists in Adamawa State, on public health and behavioural change reporting.

WHO’s Communication Resource Person, Mr Kingsley Igwebuike, while speaking with the journalists, urged them to actively participate and impact positively through their reportage so as to achieve overall well-being for all.

He also explained that the objective of the three-day training was to expose them to the rudiments of health reporting and public health knowledge.

He noted that the training would also increase the preponderance of lifesaving information on the mass media and social platforms to enable at-risk populations to take informed decisions to protect themselves from disease infection.

Igwebuike also added that the training would help to re-emphasise WHO’s role during emergencies, and also understand journalists’ roles as public health ambassadors and imbibe basic knowledge on risk communication and infordemic management.

The WHO Coordinator in the state, Dr. Ahemen Terseer, tasked the journalists to be proactive in educating the public on an epidemic before it happens.

He said it would also be good for journalists to embark on surveillance, especially on the need for the public to take preventive measures against the outbreak of epidemic-prone diseases.

“We as journalists ought to educate people on environmental sanitation, hand washing and the imperative of drinking good water to prevent diseases like Lassa fever, malaria, Cholera, yellow fever, and meningitis, among others,” he said.

According to Dr. Terseer, cholera outbreak in the state is an annual affair, hence there is a need for the media to do the needful prior to the outbreak. He revealed that in 2022, there was an outbreak in Shelleng, Guyuk and Numan local government areas of the state.

Wumi/Punch