Introduction

In Africa, health communication persists as an instrumental factor in the quest for effective healthcare service delivery for vulnerable African populations. The vulnerability of African populations is best understood through multiple lenses.

In Africa, health communication persists as an instrumental factor in the quest for effective healthcare service delivery for vulnerable African populations. The vulnerability of African populations is best understood through multiple lenses. For instance, from a socio-economic perspective, this vulnerability can be examined within the context of a continent made up of several resource-constrained countries, and the important role that communication plays. Many sub-Saharan countries are highly prone to numerous interdependent socio-economic ills such as the terrible twin problems of poverty and unemployment; interminable social inequalities; a never-ending heavy burden of disease and the inequitable quality of healthcare service provision (de Villiers, 2021). The use of communication for health becomes particularly relevant in these contexts, where such disparities in access to healthcare are rife, and communication becomes a crucial tool that continuously contributes to bridging health inequality gaps amongst other uses. Firstly, health communication fills an important information gap in contexts that are rife with social ills. Interdependence and intersectionality of social ills as well as their detrimental effects on sub-Saharan African populations is underscored by, for instance, the heavy burden of disease that is compounded by poverty and unemployment.