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

The aims of the Training Package are to contribute to the implementation of the 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 describes what needs to be established at each level of the health system in AFRO in order to detect and respond to diseases, conditions and public health events that are responsible for all preventable illnesses, deaths and disabilities in local communities. The guidelines recommend thresholds for action on priority diseases, public health events and conditions and for responding to alerts.

Self-paced
Language: English
Not disease specific

Course information

This course is also available in the following languages:

Français - Português

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 1 Overview: All participants completing the IDSR online Training Package will need to understand the objectives and organization of the full Training Package and be able to recall and understand the basic concepts, principles and types of public health systems; the definition, objectives, core functions and roles and responsibilities of IDSR; The International Health Regulations 2005 and its relationship with IDSR; the application of the One Health Approach to IDSR and other IDSR linkages; and the concepts of community-based surveillance.

Course 1 has been developed in order to ensure that all participants have a firm knowledge foundation and are well prepared to successfully complete the full Training Package 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).

A Participant's Guide for Course 1 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 Participants Guide before you start the course.

Course 1 consists of 4 modules:
Module 1: An Introduction to the IDSR online Training Courses
Module 2: An Overview of IDSR Part 1
Module 3: An Overview of IDSR Part 2
Module 4: Community Based Surveillance

Learning objectives: By the end of Course 1, participants should be able to describe the:

  • structure and content of the IDSR online training course and how participants should take part in the course;
  • general concepts of IDSR strategy implementation; and
  • basic concepts of establishing and implementing a community-based surveillance (CBS) system.

Course duration: 2 hours

Certificates:

  • A Confirmation of Participation will be issued to participants who have completed 100% of the learning materials in Course 1.
  • 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 1. 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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The course is free. Just register for an account on OpenWHO and take the course!
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Learners enrolled: 10641

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.