Across West Africa, the spread of misinformation and public scepticism has often weakened responses to disease outbreaks, but experts say working with the media could change the narrative and boost confidence in health innovations.
From COVID-19 vaccines to ongoing efforts against Ebola, Lassa fever, Mpox and yellow fever, health interventions have too often been weakened by conspiracy theories and low health literacy.
However, researchers, policymakers and advocates meeting at the 2nd ECOWAS Lassa Fever International Conference (ELFIC 2025) in Abidjan agreed that strategic partnerships with the media can build trust and strengthen community engagement.
They stressed that such collaborations are essential for turning scientific breakthroughs into solutions that people are willing to embrace.
The West African Health Organisation (WAHO), organisers of the four-day conference, said the aim was to chart a new course for tackling one of the region’s most persistent public health challenges.
Accordingly, ELFIC 2025 brought together scientists, researchers, health workers, civil society organisations, policymakers, and donors to deepen regional cooperation against Lassa fever and other infectious diseases.
Lassa fever remains a pressing concern, with one in five infections leading to severe disease.
Moreover, the absence of a vaccine and approved treatment means the virus continues to inflict devastating health and socio-economic impacts, especially in rural communities.
Conference sessions, therefore, focused on vaccine and diagnostic development, outbreak preparedness, surveillance, cross-border collaboration, and lessons from past epidemics.
Speakers emphasised that community engagement must be central to all strategies, and this is where the media has a vital role.
In many cases, experts observed that research findings remain locked in academic circles until trials are completed.
Consequently, it becomes difficult to win public trust once innovations are rolled out.
Early collaboration with professional journalists, they argued, can instead counter fake news, simplify complex science, and prepare communities for new interventions.
“People have been bombarded with misinformation and dissuaded from embracing laudable medical breakthroughs because effective media strategies were not deployed early,” one participant said.
To address this, a model presented at ELFIC 2025 calls for impactful messaging at every stage; from early research to clinical trials and eventual rollout.
Such communication, stakeholders agreed, must be transparent about progress, timelines, challenges, and expected outcomes.
The conference also spotlighted solutions journalism as an emerging tool for bridging the trust gap.
Unlike traditional reporting, solutions journalism shifts attention beyond problems to highlight evidence-based responses, examining what works, what does not, and why.
In Nigeria, organisations such as Nigeria Health Watch have already begun adopting this approach in partnership with health institutions to tell stories that inspire confidence and accountability.
According to the Solutions Journalism Network, the approach “investigates and explains, in a critical and clear-eyed way, how people try to solve widely shared problems.
“By adding rigorous coverage of solutions, journalists can tell the whole story”.
Rather than promoting specific initiatives, solutions journalism evaluates them rigorously, looking at what was done, the evidence of impact, the reasons for success or failure, and any limitations.
Its strength lies in providing proof where progress is made, identifying lessons where responses fall short, and offering insights that others can learn from.
Crucially, this approach distinguishes itself from public relations by holding leaders accountable.
By showing who is getting it right and how, it removes excuses for non-performance and pressures decision-makers to deliver.
It also reframes reporting by asking: “Who is doing something about the problem?”, across radio, print, video, animation, photography and more.
At its core, solutions journalism recognises that communities are not passive victims of challenges; they are actively seeking ways to solve them.
Built on four critical elements of response, evidence, insight and limitations, it provides a powerful tool for community engagement and stronger collaboration between the media and the health sector.
At the close of ELFIC 2025, participants agreed that early journalist–scientist collaboration, combined with solutions journalism, could go a long way in reducing vaccine hesitancy.
They stressed that adopting these strategies would not only drive acceptance of medical innovations but also strengthen cross-border cooperation in epidemic control.
In essence, they concluded that when the media acts as a trusted partner, scientific progress becomes less abstract and more of a practical solution communities can adopt with confidence.