‘Evidence-based, Ethical Reporting Key To Promoting Public Health’

Journalists have been urged to accord top-most priority to evidence-based and ethical reporting, both of which are necessary and effective to promote public health and harm reduction.

Stakeholders who gave the charge during the just-concluded third edition of the Harm Reduction Exchange insisted that having the views of all relevant stakeholders and prioritising evidence-based reporting would help eliminate misinformation, especially as it pertains to harm reduction.

Across the world, harm reduction strategies have been deployed in public health as a pragmatic and compassionate approach to address various issues, particularly in the context of substance use and other risky behaviours.

Some of these strategies include Needle Exchange Programs, supervised injection sites, condom distribution, PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), Vaping and E-Cigarettes, and supervised consumption of medications.

However, in spite of the fact that harm reduction strategies have been deployed to address public health issues, tobacco harm reduction is one key area of public health where lack of evidence-based communication and the prevalence of misinformation has continued to pose serious threats.

Speaking on ‘Media as Promoters of Public Health and Harm Reduction’, Chimwemwe Ngoma said new technologies and emerging health issues are prone to misinformation, hence the need for the media to dwell more on evidence-based communication.

He noted that lack of consensus among health officials could have public health consequences, possibly resulting in the formulation of uninformed policies.

On her part, Dr Mercy Korir, who decried the spate of misinformation and disinformation on harm reduction, noted that such have constituted a huge threat to public health.

She challenged journalists to ensure that the true principles of harm reduction go viral “in the same way that misinformation can go viral’ and harped on the need for ‘to have cultural context when introducing harm reduction methods in certain communities’.

“We must not tire of having these conversations. Policy reform should be ongoing to keep up to date with the healthiest practices. We need to keep researching harm reduction methods and storytelling is a critical way of getting the harm reduction narrative to be understood,” she noted.