Lessons from Uganda’s Successful Combat of Ebola Scourge: The Strategic Communication Approach

Abstract

This case focuses on how Ugandan health sector players (both public and private) under the leadership of the ministry of health managed to combat the Ebola scourge that hit the nation in the year 2000 in comparison to the Ebola scourge in West Africa in 2014. The case starts with a brief background of the then state of health in Uganda that comprised of a relatively weak health system with inadequate health and wellbeing promotion campaigns. This challenge has continued to the extent that up to date, 75% of the disease burden in Uganda is preventable through health awareness campaigns. The case study shows that with the weak health system in 2000, the health sector managed to use strategic communication approaches like relational cohesion, information adequacy and interaction quality to combat the Ebola scourge that had spread to nearly the whole country within only 144 days, claiming over 224 lives. The case ends with a discussion of the lessons that can be drawn from Uganda’s successful combat of Ebola basing on the understanding of social network theory and a conclusion that sets direction for future studies.

Keywords: management, communication, strategy, strategic communication, Ebola