Health Ministry calls for concerted efforts to fight public health risks in Africa
PS Diana Atwine (4th right) poses for a photo with participants from countries across Africa. Photo | Lydia Felly Akullu
What you need to know:
- According to Dr Atwine, the dynamics of communication have changed since different communities have different modes of communication.
Dr Diana Atwine, the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary has called for concerted efforts to fight public health risks in Africa through effective risk communication.
"Risk communication is the tool that we can use to reach the public to help us to build trust, but, it requires a concerted effort on our strategy on the method of delivery of the message, she said during the Public Health Risk Communication and Community Engagement Community of Practice for Africa (PH-RCCE-CoPA) technical review and planning workshop in Kampala on Thursday.
According to Dr Atwine, the dynamics of communication have changed since different communities have different modes of communication.
“To make the message relevant and aimed at building trust in the community, we should make sure that our messages are simple understandable and they are regular. This can help create behavioural change which is a master key for disease prevention," she said.
Dr Atwine said that some societies have a lot of myths such as attributing Ebola deaths to witchcraft. Such beliefs can only be done away with by breaking down messages for the common man to understand. Involving cultural leaders she believes is a good strategy for achieving effective risk communication because, in Uganda, these leaders hold some kind of respect and authority in the communities to which they belong.
Ms Aminata Grace Kobie, the technical officer of health communication at the WHO regional office in Brazzaville said lessons learnt from other countries are key in understanding that preparing early is a great way of curbing the spread of infections.
“Behavioural change for breaking the chain of infections, and stopping outbreaks happen at household and community level. We need to act early enough to make the community fully understand that we are in this together and for them to know that they have a role to play to stop out breakouts," she said.
The event convened by Africa CDC, attracted participants from 48 countries from the African continent.
