REGIONAL health managers have reminded journalists of their responsibility to present factual information about current and emerging health problems, which they said would allay rather than create fears in members of the public.

The health managers were speaking at Thursday’s opening of a two-day workshop for Caribbean journalists on the avian and human pandemic influenza, hosted by the US embassy.

Representative for the Pan American Health Organisation and the World Health Organisation, Dr Ernest Pate cautioned that the region would continue to see new and emerging diseases because of the rapidity of travel across international borders, among other factors. This, he said, would only intensify the need for greater partnership between the media and health officials for the greater good of the public, even as he acknowledged that organisations such as his do not always have the answer.

“We see a new illness, we don’t know everything about it and we need to recognise that,” he said. “We need to acknowledge that there is a lack of information and at the same time that lack of information raises anxiety, it brings stress on our population when there is this need to know.”

Jamaica’s chief medical officer, Dr Sheila Campbell-Forrester, meanwhile, said that the H1N1 virus presented an opportunity for both health organisations and the media to review their communication strategy.

The virus has already resulted in a little over 7,000 deaths in 28 countries in the Americas, as of January 24.

“I believe that the real solution to improved risk and information communication is about partnering to ensure that the real agenda for achieving health and the common good for the population has to be served,” said Campbell-Forrester.

Presenters at the workshop included chair of the Global Health Communication Team at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Dan Rutz, development officer at the International Media Training Brian Armstead; and Dr Ernest Pate.

The workshop — a joint effort of the US Embassy in Kingston, the Voice of America, US Department of State and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta — had the Observer’s Nadine Wilson among participants who were drawn from media companies in the region.