Lafiya360 reports that as of the time of this report, Nigeria has 798 confirmed cases and 80 deaths recorded from 33 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in eight states.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, made this known in Abuja, during the official flag-off of the media Epidemiology, Infodemic Management, and Social and Behaviour Change (SBC)/Risk Communication (Media-EIS) Fellowship program, in collaboration with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), and Breakthrough Action Nigeria.
While stating that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), is carrying out activities to improve immunization coverage, the NCDC boss urged the media to ramp up sensitization of the populace, with special attention on dishing accurate information to curb the rise of infodemics, that is, wrong and erroneous information.
He added that the training programme for health-focused media practitioners is to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to health events through effective science communication, understanding of risk communication to develop SBC content, and coordinated management of misinformation.
He said, “The media plays very important roles in amplifying the messages that need to go out to support behavioural change of Nigerians, irrespective of the socio-economic standing of citizens, and through all of the platforms, whether traditional or new.
“Diphtheria has been about since December, and we unfortunately expect more cases to arise in different parts of the country, because this is related to historical gaps in vaccination coverage.
“Rather than focusing on the headline of a disease or re-emerging disease causing havoc, it is important that that same headline is accompanied by detailed discussion about the underlying or predisposing factors which is all about people not taking up vaccines; vaccines that are routinely available on the NPHCDA recommended childhood immunization schedule.
“The correct message is that we need vaccination coverage to go up. We need people to take up all of the opportunities that are being provided by the Federal Ministry of Health, NPHCDA, States PHCDAs, and put lic health authorities to make vaccines available.
“We hope that our media colleagues will be better equipped and spread the message to other colleagues. We expect them to learn and also share knowledge with others, and even to start similar endeavours.”
The NCDC boss, while urging parents to take their infants under two years that have not been vaccinated to the health center, to start to catch up with vaccination, added: “More than 70 per cent of cases are occurring in people aged two to 14 years old. Over 82 per cent of confirmed cases are unvaccinated.
“We are unfortunately seeing the consequences of historical poor vaccination coverage. There have been more recent efforts to make sure that vaccination coverage improves, and we are seeing a bit of the evidence because infants or children under two, who have higher coverage these days are less affected by the ongoing outbreaks. There are also older people above 40 years that are affected.”
In her remarks, the Deputy Director of Risk Assessment and Communication, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Dupe Hambolu, emphasized the pivotal role journalists play in disseminating vital information to the public.
According to her, the Media EIS Program aims to equip media professionals with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively report on disease outbreaks and public health interventions. By doing so, the program hopes to prevent negative reporting and encourage accurate, informative journalism that supports public health efforts.
“Under this program, journalists will receive comprehensive training in a wide range of areas, including health capacity building, genetics, epidemiology, risk communication, and social behavior management,” she said.
Dr Hambolu highlighted the importance of investigative reporting and data confirmation, which will empower journalists to produce compelling disease outbreak stories and contribute to the development of a robust health database.
She expressed confidence in the Media EIS program’s ability to enhance emergency preparedness and response by bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and effective communication.