Ebola: improving science-based communication and local journalism.

The unprecedented epidemic of Ebola in west Africa has exposed not only response failures of governments, international instit utions, and public health agencies, but also the ineff ectiveness of using disconnected top-down health messages during public health emergencies. Gilles Guerrier and colleagues’ letter (Aug 29, p 851) on the need to strengthen scientific journalism in Africa is spot on. Their observation follows on the heels of a recent declaration of the World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ), which stressed the need for rigorous scientifi c journalism in tackling the Ebola crisis, and a survey among 112 African journalists of the Science journalism COOPeration (SjCOOP) mentoring project, which identified accessibility to credible scientific information as one of the most urgent issues in Ebola communication. To address the information crisis, the WFSJ and its partners—Fondation Hirondelle and African associations of science journalists—have launched a communication and training programme to strengthen independent science and health journalism in subSaharan Africa. The initiative, supported by Canada’s International Development Research Centre, aims to increase local access to health knowledge and sound evidence through better monitoring and reporting during disease outbreaks. The first phase, which launched in September, 2015, consisted of a series of workshops on the interplay between good scientifi c reporting and community engagement that were delivered in west African countries aff ected by Ebola. The second phase, launching in February, 2016, will extend the training to eastern and central Africa, focusing on networking and the development of a regional community of practice. By combining applied real-time research into communication barriers with dedicated training, we hope that this innovative training programme can promptly address some of Gilles Guerrier and colleagues’ concerns about scientifi c journalism in Africa.