By Stephen Ojo
The Nigeria Health Watch, a leading health advocacy and communication organisation in Nigeria in collaboration with various stakeholders, has successfully graduated fellows trainned on implementation of the second and third tracks of the Fellowship with the tools to counter health misinformation, promote evidence-based health narratives, and foster public trust.
The Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch. Vivianne Ihekweazu, stated this during the graduation of the fellows held through zoom.
She explained that the graduands were drawn from key stakeholders across multiple sectors including social media influencers, creatives and bloggers, nurses, midwives, traditional birth attendants and othe healtheducators.
According to her, “In recent years, health misinformation has emerged as a significant challenge, undermining public health efforts, and putting lives at risk. False or misleading health information has led to misguided decisions, vaccine hesitancy, and a lack of trust in healthcare systems and providers”.
The Managing Director explained that the Fellowship incorporated three interconnected tracks of the Health Misinformation Management programme focused on equipping influencers, bloggers, and creatives to produce accurate, compelling health content and combat false narratives online.
Other tracks according to her included Health Workers Misinformation Fellowship – Designed to enhance healthcare providers’ skills in identifying, addressing, and mitigating misinformation within their professional and community networks.
She explained that the Lagos State health educators Fellowship is a localised initiative targeting Health Promotion Officers (HPOs) in Lagos, emphasising community engagement and mobilization to combat misinformation at the grassroots.
“Fellows from the Health Misinformation Management Fellowship produced over 168 pieces of health-focused content, garnering more than 56,000 views and nearly 63,000 interactions”, she said.
She enumereated some of the achievements recorded so far to include behavioral and Knowledge Shifts, adding that, “across the programmes, there was a 31% increase in audience understanding of misinformation”.
“This fellowship is not just a program; it is a movement. Over the past month, participants have engaged in intensive learning activities. From training sessions, media literacy workshops, and community sensitisation exercises, fellows have honed practical strategies to address health misinformation in real time”, she explained.
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