Risk communication during health emergencies in Nigeria: What are its challenges?


Submitted: 11 June 2021
Accepted: 24 April 2022
Published: 1 February 2023
Abstract Views: 528
pdf: 440
HTML: 56
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Although globalization has been advantageous in facilitating the free movement of people, goods, and services, the ease of movement of cross-border pathogens has increased the risk of international public health emergencies in recent years. Risk com-munication is an integral part of every country’s response during public health emergencies such as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. To effectively increase adherence to guidelines during health emergencies, it is essential to understand the impact of social, cultural, political, and environmental factors on people’s behaviours and lifestyles in any given context, as well as how these factors influence people’s perception of risks. During the recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, the need to comprehend these influences was pronounced, and these influences ultimately shaped risk communication in Nigeria. We have identified risk communication challenges in Nigeria based on sociocultural diversity, the complexity of the health system, the impact of social media on communications, and other contextual factors surrounding multisectoral partnerships. To achieve global health security, these challenges must be addressed in resource-constrained countries like Nigeria. In this paper, we emphasize the need to contextualize risk communication strategies in order to improve their effectiveness during health emergencies. In addition, we urge increased country commitment to a multi-hazard and mul-tisectoral effort, deliberate investment in subnational risk commu-nication systems, and investments in capacity building for risk communication activities.


World Health Organisation. International Health Regulations implementation: Ensuring effective responses to public health emergencies: strengthening risk communication capacities of national systems [Internet]. 2012 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: https://www.who.int/ihr/about/07_risk_ communica-tion.pdf

World Health Organisation. General information on risk com-munication [Internet]. WHO. World Health Organisation; 2020 [cited 2020 Aug 6]. Available from: https://www.who.int/risk-communication/background/en/

World Health Organisation. Communicating risk in public health emergencies: a WHO guideline for emergency risk com-munication (ERC) policy and practice. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organisation; 2017.

Fatumo S, Ebenezer TE, Ekenna C, Isewon I, Ahmad U, Adetunji C, et al. The Nigerian Bioinformatics and Genomics Network (NBGN): a collaborative platform to advance bioin-formatics and genomics in Nigeria. Glob Health Epidemiol Genom [Internet]. 2020 Jul 15 [cited 2020 Aug 17];5. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7372179/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/gheg.2020.3

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capabilities [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2021 Jan 13]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/readiness/00_docs/CDC_Preparedne sResponseCapabilities_October2018_Final_508.pdf

Moore S, Mawji A, Shiell A, Noseworthy T. Public health pre-paredness: a systems-level approach. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2007 Apr;61(4):282–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2004.030783

Jha A, Lin L, Short SM, Argentini G, Gamhewage G, Savoia E. Integrating emergency risk communication (ERC) into the public health system response: Systematic review of literature to aid formulation of the 2017 WHO Guideline for ERC policy and practice. PLOS ONE [Internet]. 2018 Oct 31 [cited 2020 Nov 27];13(10):e0205555. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.po ne.0205555 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205555

Adeloye D, David RA, Olaogun AA, Auta A, Adesokan A, Gadanya M, et al. Health workforce and governance: the crisis in Nigeria. Human Resources for Health [Internet]. 2017 May 12 [cited 2020 Aug 27];15(1):32. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0205-4 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0205-4

Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Country-led Midterm Joint External Evaluation of IHR Core Capacities [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2021 Jan 13]. Available from: https://ncdc.gov.ng/themes/common/docs/protocols/119_1581 414518.pdf

Welcome MO. The Nigerian health care system: Need for inte-grating adequate medical intelligence and surveillance sys-tems. J Pharm Bioallied Sci [Internet]. 2011 [cited 2020 Nov 27];3(4):470–8. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249694/ DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/0975-7406.90100

Chiakaan G, Oruonye ED. Towards Overcoming Challenges of Risk Communication on Covid-19 Pandemic in Nigeria. Jalingo Journal of Social and Management Sciences [Internet]. 2020 Dec [cited 2020 Nov 27];3(1). Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346108522_Toward s_Overcoming_Challenges_of_Risk_Communication_on_To wards_Overcoming_Challenges_of_Risk_Communication_on _Covid-19_Pandemic_in_Nigeria

World Health Organisation. Risk communication is a public health intervention: Countries in Africa prepare for outbreak response [Internet]. WHO. World Health Organisation; 2017 [cited 2020 Aug 7]. Available from: http://www.who.int/risk-communication/outbreak-response-workshop/en/

McGrail K, Black C. Access to data in health information sys-tems. Bulletin of the World Health Organisation [Internet]. 2005 [cited 2020 Aug 7];83(8):561–640. Available from: https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/83/8/editorial20805htm l/en/

Meribole EC, Makinde OA, Oyemakinde A, Oyediran KA, Atobatele A, Fadeyibi FA, et al. The Nigerian health informa-tion system policy review of 2014 : the need, content, expecta-tions and progress. Health Info Libr J. 2018 Dec;35(4):285–97. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12240

Toppenberg-Pejcic D, Noyes J, Allen T, Alexander N, Vanderford M, Gamhewage G. Emergency Risk Communication: Lessons Learned from a Rapid Review of Recent Gray Literature on Ebola, Zika, and Yellow Fever. Health Communication [Internet]. 2019 Mar 21 [cited 2020 Aug 10];34(4):437–55. Available from: https://www.tandfon-line.com/doi/10.1080/10410236.2017.1405488 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1405488

World Bank Group. Digital Dividends [Internet]. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank; 2016. Available from: http://documents1.worldbank.org/curat-e d / e n / 9 6 1 6 2 1 4 6 7 9 9 4 6 9 8 6 4 4 / p d f / 1 0 2 7 2 4 - WD R -WDR2016Overview-ENGLISH-WebResBox-394840B-OUO-

pdf

Rowntree O, Bahia K, Croxson H, Delaporte A, Meyer M, Shanahan M, et al. The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2019 [Internet]. GSMA; 2019 [cited 2020 Aug 10]. Available from: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/GSMA-The-Mobile-Gender-Gap-Report-2019.pdf

Leonard Cheshire. Disability Data Review: A collation and analysis of disability data from 40 countries [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: https://www.disabilitydat-aportal.com/fileadmin/uploads/lcdp/Documents/report-web_version.pdf

UN Women, Translators without Borders. COVID-19: How to include marginalized and vulnerable people in risk communi-cation and community engagement [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Aug 10]. Available from: https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/covid-19_communityengagement_130320.pdf

World Health Organisation. 1st WHO Infodemic Management training [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news/item/30-10-2020-start-of-1st-who-infodemic-management-training

Ochu CL, Akande OW, Ihekweazu V, Kaduru C, Akomolafe O, Egwuenu A, et al. Responding to a Pandemic through Social and Behaviour Change Communication: Nigeria’s Experience. Health Security [Internet]. 2020 Dec 18 [cited 2020 Dec 22];hs.2020.0151. Available from: https://www.liebertpub. com/doi/10.1089/hs.2020.0151

Winters M, Nordenstedt H, Alvesson HM. Reporting in a health emergency: The roles of Sierra Leonean journalists dur-ing the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases [Internet]. 2020 May 21 [cited 2020 Aug 10];14(5):e0008256. Available from: https://journals.plos. org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0008256 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008256

Onyeji E. Journalists discuss challenges of health reporting in Nigeria. 2019 May 22 [cited 2021 Jan 13]; Available from: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/health/health-news/331121-journalists-discuss-challenges-of-health-report-ing-in-nigeria.html

Stears Business. Nigerians do not trust Government [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: /article/nigerians-do-not-trust-government

Chatham House. Nigeria’s Political Leaders Need to Win Trust to Tackle COVID-19 [Internet]. Chatham House. 2020 [cited 2020 Aug 3]. Available from: https://www.chathamhouse. org/expert/comment/nigeria-s-political-leaders-need-win-trust-tackle-covid-19

Partnership for Evidence-Based, Response to COVID-19. Finding the Balance: Public Health and Social Measures in Nigeria [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: https://preventepidemics.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2020/09/09082020-nigeria.pdf

Ihekweazu C. Lack of trust in health sector: the underlying cause of the large Lassa Fever outbreak in Nigeria [Internet]. Nigeria Health Watch. 2016 [cited 2020 Nov 3]. Available from: https://nigeriahealthwatch.com/lack-of-trust-in-health-sector-the-underlying-cause-of-the-large-lassa-fever-outbreak-in-nigeria/

Supporting Agencies

None

Akande, O. W., Disu, Y., Kaduru, C., Anueyiagu, C., Oguanuo, E., Ojumu, T., Akomolafe, O., Eziechina, S. O., Ejibe, U., Ihekweazu, V., Ochu, C. L., & Ihekweazu, C. (2023). Risk communication during health emergencies in Nigeria: What are its challenges?. Journal of Public Health in Africa, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.4081/jphia.2023.1943

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations


Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.