The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in collaboration with World Health Organization(WHO) and Breakthrough Action Nigeria, is organizing a workshop to review infodemic management response to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
The Head of Communication, NCDC, Dr Yahaya Disu, at the three-day workshop on Wednesday in Nasarawa, said the workshop is aimed at reviewing the current infodemic management response and develop an integrated plan for responding to infodemics both at the national and sub-national levels in the Nigeria.
Disu said that Infodemics have been a significant driver of the continued spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the emergence of its variants of concerns across the globe due to poor compliance with public health and social measures and growing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
“Therefore, there is the need to review the current national infodemic management strategy with a view to strengthening the sub-national component of the system to enable a more responsive and effective community-centred infodemic response,” he said.
Dr Abdulrahman Danjuma, WHO, Infodemic Management Consultant Nigeria, said the media and all relevant agencies have a huge social responsibility to the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious disease response in the country.
“Reporting public health issues to translate into your surveillance function in the society. With society still grappling with conspiracy theories and infodemics, the credible information that you provide will enhance the knowledge and understanding of Nigerians.
“It will, undoubtedly, give Nigerians the power and confidence to engage as partners with their health service providers when not clear about infectious diseases, vaccine safety or efficacy,” Danjuma advised.
He added that infodemic management is a discipline that uses evidence and data to design actions that mitigate crisis through risk communication and community engagement.
Dr Adunola Oyegoke, Senior Programme Officer, Partner Liaison, Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N), said that Nigerians need to recognise fake news as a profound problem that requires accountability and investment to solve.
Oyegoke stated that the COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is not taken as seriously as it should be, saying that complacency needs to end.
According to her, “as part of BA-N’s support to the Nigerian Government to strengthen global health security agenda and mitigate the impact of COVID-19, the Breakthrough Action Nigeria is supporting the ongoing NCDC’s Infodemic Management Workshop with participants drawn from MDAs, Media and Partners to review the current infodemic management response in Nigeria, develop infodemic management implementation tools and a National Infodemic Management work-plan.
Mr David Akoji, Technical Assistance, to Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), said that relevant agencies need to work with stakeholders to collaboratively scale up capacity for fact-checking and infodemic management at the community level.
According to Akoji, this is necessary to effectively combat the widespread misinformation and disinformation hindering public health response to infectious diseases.
He added that it was important for Nigerians to first understand the mandate of the NOA.
Meanwhile, Ms Racheal Abujah, Senior Health Correspondent, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said the agency plays a huge role in circulating information, influencing public behaviour, and working with all relevant agencies to curtail the spread of infectious diseases in the country.
Abujah said that NAN also plays a worldwide role in infectious diseases tracking and updates through the live updates dashboard.
“NAN allowed for timely interventions by the NCDC, WHO, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), amongst others enabling a rapid and widespread reach of public health communications.
“At NAN, we reinforce illness-preventing guidelines daily, and Nigerians are encouraged to use the right source to meet their healthcare needs,” Ms Abujah said.
She added that the agency understands that the role of media and public health communications must be explored further as they are essential tools for combating infectious outbreaks in the country.
