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How much do journalists know about Ebola to be able to confidently pass on that information to readers as their responsibility is to inform and educate readers ethically and objectively

Hildegarde The Arena
WE are all scared, and people are asking why we should be scared of the unknown.
The Ebola virus is one of the deadliest diseases to affect mankind in the first quarter of this century.
It does not have a cure yet, and nobody knows when that vaccine will be available or how many lives will have been lost worldwide by the time that a cure is found. Despite some of the estimates, no one also knows how many countries will have been affected globally, considering the porous borders and the ease of transport.

Based on readings and images viewed on TV and the Internet, this writer is scared of it, you too are I am sure, and all of us are scared to death about Ebola. Unfortunately, it is a deadly enemy that will not be killed by drones or other specialised military equipment.
It requires new strategies.

My fear also stems from the fact that as a professional entrusted with the responsibility to inform and educate the nation ethically and objectively, how do I write about this monster disease without sounding alarmist? How much do I know about it to be able to confidently pass on that information to readers?

How do I execute this major responsibility without unnecessarily creating more fear among readers who have heard about it, but are worried that if Ebola can cross the seas and infect people in the United States of America and Europe where healthcare facilities are well developed, then the probability of it doing the same anywhere else, Zimbabwe included, cannot be ruled out?

How do we as media practitioners execute our mandate without doing damage to the nation’s image, because Ebola is not just a health issue: it is an economic, cultural, social, religious, family problem? It encapsulates all these elements because it can easily remove the comfort zone we rely on, especially the notion that we are so far away from the West African states where it is wreaking havoc.

In the past week alone, we have seen a number of Western countries rethinking their approach to Ebola, despite their state-of-the-art resources and well-trained health personnel. The radical approach, including the dispatch of military personnel to Liberia and Sierra Leone might have seemed heavy-handed, but they did so because they know that when a crisis reaches such a level, only one group of people can restore sanity and discipline, and that’s the military.

This is why the reportage on Ebola-related issues need a new approach, for it is very easy to be reckless, especially among citizen “journalists” where gate keepers are non-existent.
Even in the mainstream media, it should be appreciated that one does not just wake up and report on a deadly virus like Ebola and its implications without clear guidelines on the issues that should make news.

Our stakeholders will appreciate that maybe, this is why some of the stories, opinion pieces and analyses have either lacked detail, or have also been alarmist because we are all hearing and learning about Ebola at the same time.

It is a deadly disease that has infected more than 8 000 people and killed over 4 500 people, mostly in the West African states of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
We also hear and read that by year-end more than 10 000 people will have been infected and many more would have died, and that by January/February 2015, the number of infected people will be more than one million. It is also an open secret that healthcare workers in countries where people have been infected have been the biggest group of people at risk, and to date hundreds have died or are ill.

This is why Ebola is now being classified as major threat to national security and has the capacity to cripple major and small economies.
We have heard about the sadc region’s state of preparedness, and also Zimbabwe’s state of preparedness in the face of an infection.

My major concern as a professional with a responsibility to disseminate factual information in order for every citizen to make informed decisions is that in the face of such a cataclysmic virus what information do I disseminate to the people of Zimbabwe — information that is not only factual, but will also help them and their families and communities to be vigilant?
For when people are well empowered with factual information, rumour mongers on social media will not have an opportunity to peddle falsehoods. The power of factual information, some of it coming out of media houses helped in the fight against other deadly diseases like HIV and Aids, cholera, anthrax, typhoid and others.

On a number of occasions I have asked our health reporter to request the responsible authorities, especially the Ministry of Health to conduct training programmes on reporting on issues such as Ebola for all levels of media practitioners and not limit it to health professionals.
We all need that knowledge and understanding of the virus in order to execute our duties responsibly and professionally.

This will also help demystify the disease and fight stigma that is already being reported in affected countries. When factual information is disseminated it will enable people to manage the situation even though we do not as yet have a confirmed Ebola infection in Zimbabwe or other sadc countries with the exception of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
When well-informed and well-equipped, it becomes easy to tap into the knowledge and understanding of colleagues in the profession and in the health care system.

If we recorded positives in the fight against the Aids pandemic and demystified a lot of claims through the dissemination of factual information, we can still do it. The question is do we have to wait for it to happen before we make positive steps? Let’s get educated in all aspects because a stitch in time saves nine!