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ABSTRACT
Background: In 2014, Nigeria faced an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) which resulted in 20 cases, eight deaths and over 800 contacts in two densely populated urban cities in the country. An emergency response to contain the outbreak included a communication and social mobilization unit.
Methods: The communication and social mobilization team implemented house-to-house interpersonal communication (IPC) as an innovative strategy to contain EVD. Implementation was carried out in two phases. In phase one, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and other partners held a stakeholders forum in Lagos where a risk perception analysis highlighted important risk perceptions about the disease. In collaboration with contact tracing teams, the team mapped the locations of the contacts under surveillance in Lagos and Port Harcourt. In phase two, a total of 60 teams of community mobilizers, 20 in Lagos and 40 in Port Harcourt, were trained and dispatched to households within the neighbourhood where contacts lived. Each team spent 30 minutes engaging members of each household with EVD prevention messaging including hand-washing demonstrations. Over a one month period in Lagos and Port Harcourt, respectively, a total of 10 697 house-to-house IPC sessions educating 145 725 community members, were conducted in 11 Local Government Areas in Lagos State and 37 wards in two LGAs in Rivers State.
Conclusion: This house-to-house IPC strategy may have contributed to improving EVD prevention practices and is a promising intervention for outbreak control. However, the impact of this intervention needs confirmation through a post-intervention survey, which we recommend to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence that would complement lessons learned discussed in this paper.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the excellent efforts of the entire staff of UNICEF and the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre in Nigeria.
Disclaimer statements
Contributors All contributors worked on the Social Mobilization teams of the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre in Port Harcourt and Lagos. Each contributor worked on sections of the first draft of this manuscript and reviewed/revised subsequent drafts.
Funding None.
Conflicts of interest There are no known conflicts of interest.
Ethics approval This manuscript and the work it presents did not require ethical approval.
ORCID
Omosivie Maduka http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8243-8131
Charles Nzuki http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6783-2387
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Omosivie Maduka
Dr Omosivie Maduka (MB; BS, DipPH, FMCPH) is a Lecturer and Public Health Consultant, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Port Harcourt. She worked as deputy team lead on the Port Harcourt Emergency Operations Centre (EOC).
Charles Nzuki
Charles Nzuki is the Chief of Enugu Field Office, UNICEF. He served as the deputy team lead operations and coordination on Port Harcourt EOC.
Hilary Chidi Ozoh
Hilary Chidi Ozoh PhD is a Communication for Development Specialist at the UNICEF Enugu Field Office. He was a deputy team lead for the communications and social mobilization unit of the Port Harcourt EOC.
Arthur Tweneboa-Kodua
Arthur Tweneboa-Kodua is Chief, Communication for Development UNICEF, Nigeria. He provided technical assistance to the Communication and Social Mobilization Teams in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
Sara Beysolow Nyanti
Sara Beysolow Nyanti is currently the Country Representative for UNCEF in The Gambia. She was the Chief of Lagos UNICEF Field Office and served as Team Lead Coordination and Operations for the Lagos and Port Harcourt EOCs.
Caroline Fola Akosile
Caroline Fola Akosile is a Communication for Development Specialist at the UNICEF Lagos field office. She provided technical assistance to the Lagos EOC.
Disu Oyewoga
Dr Disu Oyewoga is a Medical Officer of Health, Lagos State Primary Health Care Management Board. Lagos, Nigeria. He was also the deputy team lead for the Communication and Social Mobilization Unit of the Lagos EOC.
Adenrele Haastrup
Dr Adenrele Haastrup is an Associate Professor of Health Education at the University of Lagos – Nigeria. He served in the Communication and Social Mobilization Units of the Lagos EOC.
Faisal Shuaib
Dr Faisal Shuaib is the Deputy Incident Manager, Emergency Operations Center of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, Nigeria.