Health Education and Disease Outbreak Control in Nigeria

Abstract

The Nigerian society has dealt with series of old and emerging disease outbreaks even in the recent past decade. This paper explored the role of health education in the control of disease outbreak in the country with particular reference to adult health education. The concepts of disease outbreak and disease prevention and control were discussed. Adequate health education methods for providing health education for the control of disease outbreaks were identified and discussed while the role of Information and Communication Technology in driving the process effectively was succinctly exposed. Finally, constraints to effective health education for disease control in Nigeria which included dearth of professional health educators, low level computer literacy and lack of infrastructure were discussed. It was concluded that controlling disease outbreak within a population cannot be effectively achieved without education interventions. Based on the conclusion, suggestions for mitigating the identified constraints were offered including that all health professionals who work in health facilities including should receive appropriate training in health education so that they can effectively carry out health education functions especially during disease outbreaks.