Nora: Health Communication in the Developing World

Health Communications Strategies in the Developing World

There are clearly myriad challenges working toward global health equity in the developing world, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries such as Sierra Leone where rapidly-accelerating HIV / AIDS rates are compounded by political and civil unrest and the looming specter of the colonial legacy. In such resource-poor settings, it is extraordinarily challenging to provide even the basic level of medical care or education. In settings where the distribution of supplies, medical personnel, and long- or short-term aid is not possible, the dissemination of health information can be the first line of defense in mitigating current health crises and preventing new ones from emerging. Health-related communication is a relatively low-cost health intervention requiring less person-to-person contact than direct care. While health media can never replace medical care, it is a stop-gap measure that can critically intervene when...
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