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Welcome to the WHO AFRO Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) Technical Guidelines online training courses.

The aims of the Training Package are to contribute to the implementation of the WHO/AFRO IDSR Strategy 2020 – 2030 and to enable participants to gain appropriate knowledge for using data to detect and respond to priority diseases, conditions and public health events, and thereby reduce the burden of illness, death and disability in communities.

The IDSR Technical Guidelines 3rd Edition explicitly describe what needs to be established at each level of the health system in Member States of the African Region in order to detect and respond to diseases, conditions and public health events that are responsible for many preventable illnesses, deaths and disabilities in local communities. The guidelines recommend thresholds for action on priority diseases, conditions and public health events.

Self-paced
Language: English
Not disease specific

Course information

The full online Training Package will consist of 5 courses in English, French and Portuguese and will be available in 2022.

Guidance for AFRO target audiences: Which IDSR course should I take?

Course 5 Overview:

Course 5 has been developed in order to ensure the successful implementation of the IDSR Strategy 2020 - 2030 and the IDSR Technical Guidelines 3rd Edition 2019: Booklets One, Two, Three, Four, Five and Six, including Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‑19).

Course 5 describes and outlines how public health emergencies may result in population displacement to congested settings where basic access to water, food, shelter, and other social services are constrained. Due to the disruption of health and other social services during the emergencies, the routine national IDSR systems need to be enhanced to function optimally to meet the public health surveillance and outbreak response needs in humanitarian contexts.

Course 5 also introduces the key principles of implementing IDSR in complex humanitarian emergencies. This will involve enhancing IDSR core functions to ensure early detection, assessment and response to acute public health events.

A Participant's Guide for Course 5 is available here. Participant Guides contain the course content and learning activities and are provided for reference purposes during the online training and for further study offline.

We suggest that you download the IDSR Technical Guidelines 3rd Edition and the Participants Guide before you start the course.

Course 5 consists of an Overview presentation and 1 module. The module is further divided into two parts:

Module 1: Tailoring IDSR to emergency or fragile health system context
Part 1: Basic principles of conducting public health surveillance and response in health emergencies and fragile health systems

Part 2: Establishing IDSR structures during health emergencies and fragile health systems

Learning objectives: By the end of Course 5 participants should be able to recall and understand:

  • How to implement IDSR strategy in complex humanitarian emergencies and fragile health systems

Course 5 duration: 1 hour

Certificates:

  • A Confirmation of Participation will be issued to participants who have completed 100% of the learning materials in Course 5
  • A Record of Achievement will be awarded to those participants who have earned at least 80% of the maximum number of points from the quizzes in Course 5. Participants will be able to have an unlimited number of attempts at these quizzes in order to achieve the 80%.
  • Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.

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Learners enrolled: 3039

Certificate Requirements

  • Gain a Record of Achievement by earning at least 80% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.
  • Gain a Confirmation of Participation by completing at least 100% of the course material.