Risk communication in a double public health crisis: the case of Ebola and cholera in Ghana

Abstract

During 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic, many West African countries experienced perennial outbreaks of various infectious diseases. Given the geographic dynamics of disease outbreaks in the region, it seems obvious that research on risk communication needs to contemplate how these countries manage risk communication about simultaneously occurring infectious diseases. Yet, this is missing in risk communication scholarship. I draw on insights from the social amplification of risk framework to assess how three amplification stations responded to risk signals about proximate Ebola and cholera outbreaks in 2014 in Ghana. Based on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with risk communicators, media workers, and community members, I argue that the differing individual and social experiences of Ebola and cholera in Ghana were shaped by historical, religious, socio-cultural, and institutional processing of risk signals, which guided judgements about risks. This study contributes to the literature on the social amplification of risk framework and risk and crisis communication by showing how the context of an impending crisis can lead to a health crisis for a preventable and treatable disease through the amplification and attenuation of risks signals. The study recommends the inclusion of lay people perspectives in the development of risk and crisis communication campaigns.