Journalists from Indonesia interviewed a scientist in One Health conference in Canada

Saskatoon, 

The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) together with the FAO Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Indonesia encourage the mass media to be more active in publicising the issue of pandemic diseases, especially in raising awareness to prevent and control new Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) and reduce the threat of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) using the “One Health” approach.

The most recent activity was to support three Indonesian journalists to participate in the annual International One Health Congress, held this year in Saskatoon Canada, on 22-25 June. The journalists from Tempo, Kompas TV and Tribun Manado were the winners of the 2018 MoA-FAO media fellowship awards, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT-2) programme.

“The Mass Media play a very important role in raising public awareness. No matter how hard the government tries to control pandemic threats, their efforts will be futile, if the community does not understand the threats, “ said Pebi Purwo Suseno, Veterinary Officer of the Directorate of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture.

Through the media fellowship programme, media representatives were trained to understand, recognise and identify potential pandemic threats to the global community, and informed of the Indonesian Government’s efforts to prevent and control these threats.

Shinta Maharani, from Tempo was delighted when she learnt that she had been selected to visit the “One Health” Congress in Canada. The fellowship has exposed her to this international forum where she could increase her knowledge, especially on new scientific findings and initiatives to protect mankind from health threats and catastrophes.

“I realize now, that EID are not only a threat for Indonesia, as one of the Asian hotspots for disease emergence, but that this is a global threat,“ she said on the sidelines of the One Health Congress in Saskatoon.

Shinta suggested that scientists, governments, and other stakeholders need to consider a communication framework that is simple, but far-reaching to raise public awareness, especially through the use of mass media.

“I agree with the views expressed by the 1996 Nobel Prize for Medicine awardee Peter C. Doherty, in his presentation at the opening of the congress. He said that the key to controlling health threats is effective communication. Most health information, although understood by the scientific community, is not adequately transmitted to the public; this gap needs to be corrected”, “she said.

Agreeing with Shinta, Kompas TV journalist Mutiara Ramadhani and Tribun Manado correspondent, Finneke Wolajan admitted that animal health issues are not a priority in their newsrooms. However, in the view of Finneke, people in Manado are vulnerable to exposure to emerging diseases, because they live closely with wildlife and consume wild animals.

“In Manado, people traditionally consume wildlife such as bats. From the training, that was conducted by the MoA and FAO, I’m now aware that wild animals are able to transmit many diseases to humans,“ she said.

FAO ECTAD Indonesia team leader James McGrane, hopes that in the future more attention will be paid to using mass and social media to raise public awareness of potential pandemic health threats and AMR. “FAO has committed to increasing journalists’ capacity to understand emerging and re-emerging disease threats and to engage with and communicate with the community to inform them in simple language of potential risky behaviour and threats to their health. Mass and social media play a strategic role in raising people’s awareness and thereby preventing and mitigating future pandemics,“ he said.