Nigeria Health Watch (NHW), in collaboration with the Niger State Government through the state ministries of primary healthcare, secondary healthcare, and tertiary health, has graduated about 25 fellows of the state Health Misinformation Management fellowship.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony held at the Haske Luxury Hotel in Minna, the state commissioner for secondary and tertiary health, Dr. Bello Tukur, said the fellowship programme was important to the state health sector because it would help curb health misinformation in the state.
He observed that a misinformed person was more dangerous than an uninformed person and appreciated the NHW for identifying the gap because it was important to pass the right information to the public at all times.
Dr. Tukur, who said the damage misinformation can cause was more severe than the lack of information, recalled how people were made to bath and drink salt water, which led to the deaths of some hypertensive people during the Ebola era.
He said the fellows will serve as vanguards for the health ministries and help in the dissemination of the right information to the public, expressing optimism that the state will have successful public health programmes this year with the help of the fellows.
While congratulating NHW and the graduands for the successful completion of the fellowship programme, the commissioner promised that they would accord them all the necessary support to effectively discharge their duties.
The state commissioner for primary healthcare, Dr. Ibrahim Dangana, who was represented by Dr. Ahmed Abdulsalam, said he was excited about the programme and that the fellows will serve as soldiers for the dissemination of righteous health information.
He said that with the nature of the training received by the fellows, there will be a pool of local experts that will assist officials in the health sector of the state when the need arises.
In her remarks, the Director of Programmes at NHW, Dr. Kemisola Agbaoye, said the organisation was overwhelmed with the level of commitment the fellows put towards the success of the cohort one programme, adding that they were proud of them.
She disclosed that they were already in talks with the state ministries of primary healthcare and secondary and tertiary health on how to institutionalise the project and get the fellows integrated into the already existing structure of community mobilisation and rumour management in the state.
Earlier in his overview of the cohort one programmeme, the state epidemiologist, Dr. Patrick Gimba, said the fellowship programmeme was designed to empower the participants with skills to effectively identify and address health misinformation in the state, their communities, and their work places, and to foster strategic partnership among stakeholders.