NCDC, partners unveil fellowship to strengthen health reporting

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), in collaboration with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), and Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria (BA-Nigeria), has launched a media fellowship to strengthen public health reporting in Nigeria.

The fellowship is titled, “Epidemiology, Infodemiology and Social and Behaviour Change/Risk Communication Media Fellowship (MEDIA-EIS FELLOWSHIP).”

Briefing newsmen in Abuja, the Field Coordinator, AFENET, Dr Elizabeth Adedire said the COVID-19 pandemic had revealed a lot of gaps in public health communication.

She said, “With our mission of ensuring a healthier Africa, we have supported several training programmes across the country. It is really laudable that we will be supporting the epidemiology component of the MEDIA-EIS fellowship.”

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Oliver Iorkase, a communication specialist, AFENET, said the Media EIS fellowship was informed by findings from a national needs assessment conducted as part of the methodology of the programme development.

He said, “Combining the knowledge of epidemiology, infodemiology and social behaviour change empowers the journalist with a unique capacity to cover health events.”

The head, communications division of the NCDC, Dr Yahya Disu, said the MEDIA-EIS Fellowship was geared towards building the capacity of media stakeholders to enable them report health accurately and effectively, as well as verify information that would improve the wellbeing of the people.

The director-general of the NCDC, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, said the fellowship’s consortium designed the programme to enhance the success of field epidemiology investments and contribute to disease prevention, detection and control of outbreaks, thereby strengthening Nigeria’s health security.