InterPress News Service (IPS); July 22, 1997
Lewis Machipisa

Not that there are no resources, but these tend to be diverted from social sectors such as health to other more "productive" areas.

"As a result most people now go to traditional doctors where some get fake medicine and more and more people are dying," says Victor Adefela, communications consultant at the World Health Organisation's Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO).

Each year, one million Africans, mostly children under the age of five, die of malaria or a combination of malaria and other diseases. Another 800,000 or so die annually from diarrhoea and dehydration, the WHO estimates.

"But we know some of these diseases could be prevented if information about them and how to prevent and treat them was available," said Adefela.

Given the enormity of Africa's health problems and the shortage of resources for the sector, the importance of information and communication as a primary health care intervention tool has become greater, according to WHO and African health officials.

"Many of the health problems facing Zimbabwe and other African countries today can be prevented or controlled if individuals have information on what to do and are constantly reminded and motivated to do them," according to Felicity Zawaira, principal medical director in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare in Zimbabwe.

Giving an example of how valuable such information is, Adefela said: "The poorest African can spread AIDS but if he can use a condom he can save more than 10,000 U.S. dollars that an AIDS patient needs a year."

But the availability of health information is severely limited in Africa, and this led the World Bank and the WHO to bring together some 30 health information and promotion officers in Harare to discuss ways to improve its dissemination.

"It is highly desirable to have a corps of professionals who have the appropriate training, orientation and facilities and whose duty is to inform and educate the people all the time on how to prevent diseases and promote their health," Zawaira told participants at the Jul. 22-26 meeting.

An information package introduced at the meeting is to be distributed to medical centres throughout Africa. It provides answers to questions such as: what is a particular disease? what are the signs that someone has it? what are its causes? what are its effects on a person? if someone has it, how can other people help? and how can people prevent the disease?

The package, written in simple language, contains information on 11 common ailments: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diarrhoeal diseases, pneumonia, diabetes, artery and heart diseases, red eyes, measles, poliomyelitis, and tetanus.

"It cuts out medical jargon and removes the mystery surrounding the diseases, thus bridging the gap between those who have the information needed to cope with health problems and those who need it," said Ebrahim Samba, WHO-AFRO's Regional Director, who launched information pack.

Titled 'Coping With Common Diseases', it is the first in a series of multi-media health information packages the WHO is putting out as part of a 1996-2000 Plan of Action.

"In a continent where people are now forced to treat about 60 percent of illnesses at home because of financial difficulties, the information package should be of immense benefit to the majority of the population," said Samba.

According to a WHO background paper, the deteriorating health situation in Africa has sharply increased public need and demand for information on health. This, it notes, "calls for new orientations, approaches and skills on the part of those involved in health information and promotion activities."

Africa urgently needs to "remove the health information from books and shelves and take it to the rural people who need it," said Akin Fatoyinbo, Communications Adviser of the World Bank in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. "Health is a pre-condition to everything. Information is available in tonnes of books but many of our people are not using it.

"Ten years ago, information on AIDS was available but most of our people did not have it. Today people in the productive sectors of our countries are dying as a result of this ignorance. This could have been avoided had the information been available to people who need it."

"They say where ignorance is bliss, it's folly to be wise, but ignorance is a killer," added Fatoyinbo. "We have to systemise the transmission of health information in language that people can understand and can deal with."

This is the idea behind the new information package, according to Adefela: "We have selected the most common but most deadly diseases and the information is in very simple language ... Teachers should be able to interpret it to their students. School children should be able to read it to their illiterate grandmothers." (end/ips/lm/kb/97)

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