World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with Borno State Ministry of Health, has organised a three-day training on health reporting for journalists in the state.
At the opening ceremony, the WHO acting emergency manager, Dr Samuel Yenyi, said the training became necessary as effective communication remained key in containing outbreaks of diseases.
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“If we get the communication right, an outbreak that will take three months, could be addressed in a few days,” Yenyi said.
He said the essence of the training was to prepare the journalists to support the health sector in ensuring effective communication whenever there was a need to pass messages on health to the public.
The director of Borno State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Fatima Ali, who welcomed the participants, said the media is one of the most important stakeholders in managing the health sector, adding that a well-informed media helps during campaigns against epidemic and pandemic diseases, as well as help inform the public.
She also thanked and commended WHO and partners for organising the workshop.
Also commenting on the objectives of the training, a facilitator with WHO, Mr Kingsley Igwebuike, said the exercise would improve journalistic views and perspective on health reporting.
Igwebuike said that the training would also increase the preponderance of life-saving information, just as he stressed the role of WHO during emergencies.
“It will improve our public health knowledge; our roles as public health ambassadors, and also help us imbibe basic knowledge of risk communication,” Igwebuike said.
Some of the issues discussed during the training include overview of epidemic prone diseases (diphtheria, monkeypox, Lassa fever, cholera, meningitis, measles among others) in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states.