Mass media awareness campaign and the prevention of the spread of Lassa fever in the rural communities of Ebonyi State, Nigeria: Impact evaluation

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of media campaign on the prevention and spread of Lassa fever in Ebonyi state. 354 respondents were randomly selected from six rural communities in the state as study sample, while structured questionnaires were used for collecting data. SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the data. Results of analysis reveal that the media campaign has rural reach but has little or no impact. The results also reveal that the campaign failed to create appropriate awareness of the disease, its preventive/curative health behaviors. It further reveals that there are no health behavior modifications among the people because of the campaign. Therefore, this paper recommends the modification of media contents to incorporate the required preventive/curative health behaviors. Secondly, mandatory mass media awareness campaign and jingles in every news hour is recommended.