…As HEWAN updates members’ reporting skills

By Sola Ogunduipe

Health editors and reporters in Nigeria have been charged to be dedicated to their professional calling in safeguarding public health.

Making the call in Lagos, the Director of Research/Consultant Pediatrician at the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Dr. Agatha David, said Nigerian health reporters should wield their pens like scalpel blades — cutting through misinformation to save lives.

David, who spoke during the 2-day training programme put together by the Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN), with support from NIMR and Roche Nigeria, declared that health journalism is no longer just about storytelling even as she warned that every health report carries the power to heal or harm, and that misinformation, especially in the digital age, is as deadly as any virus.

“The primary purpose of health journalism is a matter of life and death, it’s a front-line defense against disease and deception. Your role goes beyond informing the public clearly and accurately about health matters and to improve health outcomes.

“Every health reporter should see themselves as a public health practitioner, the goal is to improve the health of the community, choose accuracy, choose responsibility, choose truth,” she implored, stressing that accurate information is as vital to survival as access to medicines.

David lamented that in today’s information age, contact with health information itself has become a vulnerability. Health communication, she said, spans news, advice, and analysis across different media, but demands specialised knowledge and an unshakable commitment to truth.

“We need to be able to translate medical data from all over the world so that people can understand it accurately. There is a need for accuracy and reliability. Every report you write can either save a life or endanger one. Choose accuracy, choose responsibility, choose truth,” she urged.

David’s words cut through the noise of modern misinformation. It was not just a message to journalists – it was a call to arms for an entire nation battling both disease and deception.

She recounted a troubling encounter that illustrated the dangers of misinformation. A woman, she said, had shown her an online post claiming that vaccinated people had more communicable diseases than the unvaccinated. The woman was convinced it was true because she had “read it somewhere.”

David investigated the so-called study and found nothing: no journal, no author, no date.

 “Somebody just concocted something and put it out there. We must be very mindful of what is happening these days. The information space is so vast, and much of it is misleading, ” she said, visibly disturbed.

She reminded HEWAN members that there are decades of scientific evidence proving the benefits of immunisation and that while every medical intervention carries some risk, those risks are minimal compared to the immense benefits.

 “Maybe one in a million, the benefits far outweigh the risks, ” she said, warning that health misinformation can kill, and journalists are the first line of defense.

Turning her focus to Nigeria’s disease landscape,  David painted a sobering picture. Infectious diseases, she said, remain the leading causes of sickness and death in the country, but non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and cancer are rapidly rising.

Nigeria is now battling a dual disease burden that demands attention and balanced reporting.

“Nutritional disorders, maternal and child health issues are the main health concerns we should be focusing on,” she said.

Listing the “big three” diseases that continue to plague the country — HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria — and warned that epidemic-prone diseases like Lassa fever, cholera, and meningitis remain major threats.

More worrying, she said, is the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria and measles, a dangerous consequence of misinformation and low immunization uptake.

“They are coming back, and we need to know why. Malaria remains a major killer of Nigerians, almost every Nigerian is at risk all year round,” she noted, saying that despite the federal government’s goal to eliminate malaria by 2030, she warned that progress is slow.

“People are used to treating fever as malaria without testing; malaria should not end like that.”

Nigeria, she explained, accounts for 27 percent of the global malaria burden and 31 percent of malaria deaths worldwide.

She urged citizens to adopt preventive measures such as using insecticide-treated nets, indoor residual spraying, seasonal malaria chemoprophylaxis for children, and prophylactic therapy for pregnant women.

She also highlighted the recent introduction of the malaria vaccine in phases, beginning with Kebbi and Bayelsa States – a major milestone in the country’s health journey.