Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are mainly prevalent in tropical areas, where they affect impoverished, underserved communities. They cause devastating health, social and economic consequences.

WHO estimates that more than 1.7 billion people require treatment for at least one NTD every year.

As we mark World NTD Day on 30 January, join one of the 19 courses on our dedicated NTD channel to learn more.

You can help spread the word about these free online courses on social media using the tiles available here.

26 January 2023 marks three years since WHO launched its first OpenWHO.org course on the then-novel coronavirus and started providing accessible, up-to-date and informative health knowledge for a diverse global audience amid the fast-evolving pandemic. As of this date, OpenWHO offers a total of 190 online courses, 46 of which address COVID-19 topics, and has totaled 7.4 million course enrolments.

To adapt to a multilingual world and best serve the affected global population, OpenWHO courses have been produced in a total of 65 languages, with an average of four languages available per course. 15 country-specific learning channels have been developed with WHO Country Offices to provide access in Member States’ official languages. All learning content has been created and vetted by WHO science and expert teams to ensure its scientific accuracy.

To have the widest possible impact and reach learners from remote communities to high-tech metropolises, including in health emergency contexts, OpenWHO has leveraged existing technologies and is offering simple, adaptable and accessible learning content. OpenWHO courses are provided in self-paced, multi-use formats so learners have the option to participate whenever and however works best for them, in line with the universal design for learning framework. Materials are also increasingly optimized for a world in which many rely on mobile phones to stay informed.

Feedback received to date shows positive and encouraging trends. An analysis of two surveys for the platform’s second most popular course – Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in the context of COVID-19 – confirmed high user satisfaction, with learning needs overwhelmingly met. More than 95% of participants said they would change at least some IPC practices after the course, a majority of whom were women aged 20 to 39 years working in a health-related profession.

In addition, survey results from learners who followed the COVID-19 vaccination training for health workers confirmed the effectiveness of self-paced, multi-use formats from the user perspective, as well as the value of modular and low-bandwidth friendly materials to reduce barriers to access.

Finally, recent feedback indicates that OpenWHO’s learning reach has extended beyond the online platform as communities adapt materials to local contexts and key learners impart the knowledge they gained, creating a multiplier effect.

By harnessing the potential of simple formats and technologies to empower millions of people across the globe with knowledge to protect themselves and their communities, OpenWHO has helped WHO further the goal of supporting everyone, everywhere in attaining the highest level of health. Moving forward, this knowledge-transfer platform will remain an important and effective tool in the preparedness for and response to health emergencies across the globe.

Learning saves lives. That’s why WHO provides more than 190 online courses on public health topics for anyone interested, free of charge.

On 24 January, join us in celebrating International Day of Education by finding an OpenWHO course to help protect your community. Start learning today.

Help spread the word with WHO's LinkedIn post here.

OpenWHO delivers real-time learning for health emergencies across the globe, with a focus on courses for severe emerging diseases with epidemic and pandemic potential.

The platform offers courses on 33 diseases, including all priority disease categories identified under the WHO R&D Blueprint. To develop the priority list, a WHO tool distinguishes which diseases pose the greatest public health risk due to their epidemic potential and/or whether there is no or insufficient countermeasures.

In 2022, OpenWHO responded to 41 outbreaks through learning. The platform also produced courses to strengthen the response to other types of graded emergencies, including the flooding in Pakistan, food insecurity in the Horn of Africa and the conflict in Ukraine. In addition, OpenWHO hosts a suite of core emergency management courses and has refined its production systems to prepare for Disease X, a novel, unknown pathogen with pandemic potential.

On 27 December, commemorate International Day of Epidemic Preparedness by spreading the word about OpenWHO's free online courses with your networks. Learning saves lives – especially in health emergencies.

OpenWHO invites you to celebrate Arabic Language Day on 18 December by enrolling in one of 33 online courses available in Arabic on our free learning platform. The courses cover a variety of topics, including monkeypox, COVID-19, neglected tropical diseases, emergency management and community engagement.

In total, OpenWHO offers courses in 65 national and local languages to make learning accessible to communities across the globe. You can browse them here.

---

تدعوك منظمة الصحة العالمية المفتوحة للاحتفال بيوم اللغة العربية في 18 ديسمبر من خلال التسجيل في واحدة من 33 دورة تدريبية عبر الإنترنت متاحة باللغة العربية على منصتنا التعليمية المجانية. تغطي الدورات مجموعة متنوعة من الموضوعات، بما فيها: جدري القردة، فيروس كوفيد-19، أمراض المناطق المدارية المهملة، وإدارة الطوارئ والمشاركة المجتمعية.

في المجمل، تقدم المنصة دورات في 65 لغة وطنية ومحلية لجعل التعلم في متناول المجتمعات في جميع أنحاء العالم. يمكنك الإطلاع عليها هنا.

Millions of people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in February.

Refugees and migrants from Ukraine may face challenges that hinder their access to health care in hosting and receiving countries, such as linguistic, financial and cultural barriers, discrimination and social exclusion. They have specific health needs and vulnerabilities requiring culturally sensitive care that recognizes the impact of migration and displacement on their physical and mental health.

As we prepare to mark International Migrants Day on 18 December, OpenWHO invites you to join our course Delivering quality health services to refugees and migrants from Ukraine. The course is designed to support health workers in hosting and receiving countries to provide quality and safe care that is responsive to the circumstances and particular health needs of people from Ukraine seeking health assistance.

Developed by the WHO Health and Migration Programme alongside clinicians providing health services to refugees and migrants, the 30-minute video course features 6 case studies that reflect the common health problems of conflict-affected populations fleeing Ukraine. Access the course here.

At least half of the people in the world do not receive the health services they need. About 100 million people are pushed into extreme poverty each year because of out-of-pocket spending on health. This must change.

On 12 December, celebrate Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day by joining a course on our dedicated UHC learning channel. The courses address a range of topics – from health systems resilience, to vaccine safety, to oral health – that support WHO’s target of 1 billion more people benefitting from UHC.

UHC means that all people have access to the health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. Learn more about UHC Day 2022 on the WHO website.

New channel on Chemical and Biological Deliberate Events

As the United Nations’ public health agency, WHO has an important role to play in the global public health response to events involving the possible deliberate use of biological and chemical hazards against a human population.

The Chemical and Biological Deliberate Events (CBDE) channel hosts online training to provide basic knowledge for managing the consequences of a CBDE. A series of 3 courses is available:

• CBDE Awareness: Recognizing Signs of Deliberate Release of Chemical or Biological Agents
• CBDE: Preparedness for Health First Responders
• CBDE: Preparedness for Public Health Professionals

You’re invited: Webinar introducing new EWARS-in-a-box online training course

On 12 December, please join WHO experts for a webinar introducing a new EWARS-in-a-box online training course on OpenWHO. During the session, you will hear about the importance of online training for emergency response, especially on early warning tools like EWARS in a box.

The free event will be held from 14:00 – 15:00 CET and is open to anyone interested.

Register for the webinar here.

New page with key learning resources for Pakistan floods emergency

OpenWHO launched a dedicated page with key learning resources for the Pakistan crisis. This page hosts a series of general courses on infectious diseases and emergency management that may be helpful in the context of a flood emergency. Some of the learning resources are also available in national languages such as Pashto and Urdu.

New courses and languages

We are pleased to announce the following courses that were also recently made available:

Introduction to Nipah virus disease: This course introduces Nipah virus disease and outlines the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, transmission routes and epidemiology of the disease. It also discusses prevention and control strategies.

For a healthier world: safely managed sanitation: This course, part of WHO’s efforts to support capacity building globally, unpacks the health rationale for safely managed sanitation (SMS) and how programming approaches need to adapt to improve health outcomes.

WHO Good Reliance Practices: The aim of this course is to provide an introduction to WHO Good Reliance Practices (GRelP) and to advocate for the use of reliance in the regulatory oversight of medical products.

Monitoring methodologies for diet-related regulatory interventions to support a healthy food environment: This course provides guidance on how to effectively develop, implement and improve methods and systems for monitoring and enforcing food industry compliance, with particular reference to three key types of food regulations: labelling, reformulation and regulations on marketing of food and non-alcoholic beverages to children.

Measles and rubella outbreak preparedness and response in South East Asia Region: This course aims to support programme managers and outbreak response teams with outbreak preparedness, response and recovery in countries that have targeted measles and rubella elimination.

Antimicrobial resistance and infection prevention and control: In this course, you will learn about what antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is and how resistant infections occur, which pathogens cause the biggest problems globally and in the health care setting, the risk factors and causes of AMR and, most importantly, the role of IPC in reducing AMR.

Bloodstream infections: In this course, you will learn about case definitions of bloodstream infections (BSI) due to catheter use, their epidemiology and the risk factors for acquiring BSIs.

Outbreak Investigations in health facilities: In this course, you will learn how to identify a health care-associated infection (HAI) outbreak in your facility and what to do after a HAI outbreak is identified.

New translations

The following 13 translations have been launched this month:

• Hand hygiene in Georgian
• Mpox epidemiology, preparedness and response for African outbreak contexts in Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese and Russian
• Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever introduction in Kazakh
• Occupational health and safety in Kazakh
• Cholera introduction in Urdu
• Measles outbreak in Spanish
• Marburg introduction in French
• Vaccine safety basics in Ukrainian
• Role of personal protective equipment in Armenian
• Waste management in Ukrainian

Updates to course content

The following course materials have been revised to reflect updates to the technical content and are now up to date:

• Social prescribing in English

We are pleased to announce that OpenWHO now has a total of 190 courses spread across 65 languages. All courses can be accessed here. You can use the toolbar to filter courses by language and topic. You can also access our catalogues which show all courses and languages available here.

Monthly newsletter

You can access the most recent newsletter here. The newsletter highlights are also available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Another year of serving the world with free online learning for public health is coming to a close, and it would not have been possible without all of you. Thank you for being a part of the OpenWHO learning community. As we enter 2023, we will continue to work to provide you with the latest health knowledge to save lives, reduce disease transmission and protect the vulnerable.

Wishing you all a safe, healthy and happy new year.

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionally affected people living with disabilities, highlighting the need for disability-inclusive COVID-19 response.

On 3 December, OpenWHO will join the global community in commemorating International Day of Persons with Disabilities under this year's theme: Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world.

OpenWHO is dedicated to tailoring its learning approaches to meet the needs of people living with disabilities. By doing so, OpenWHO helps make health information accessible across different communities, promoting equity in learning for health emergencies.

Learn more about the approaches OpenWHO has introduced in our recent article in WHO's Monthly Operational Update on COVID-19, available on p.16.

As the United Nations’ public health agency, WHO has an important role to play in the global public health response to events involving the possible deliberate use of biological and chemical hazards against a human population.

OpenWHO has launched a new Chemical and Biological Deliberate Events (CBDE) channel that hosts online training to provide basic knowledge for managing the consequences of a CBDE. General awareness is needed to better understand, prepare, detect and respond to deliberate events. Health care professionals will be among the key personnel responding to CBDEs, which will place exceptional strain on the health sector, so it is vital that public health personnel have a basic understanding of how to manage an effective response.

The channel hosts a series of 3 courses:

• CBDE Awareness: Recognizing Signs of Deliberate Release of Chemical or Biological Agents: This course aims to ensure that all participants recognize possible deliberate events with chemical or biological agents and know the different response types this will require compared to other emergencies.
• CBDE: Preparedness for Health First Responders: This course aims to provide health professionals with basic training on managing and responding to a CBDE by looking at it from a health first-responder angle.
• CBDE: Preparedness for Public Health Professionals: This course aims to provide public health professionals worldwide with basic knowledge for preparing for and organizing the management of the consequences of a CBDE.

Participants in each course have the opportunity to earn certificates for both completion and achievement.

Safe sanitation systems are fundamental to protect public health. WHO supports capacity building and implementation through guidelines and tools on sanitation and health, safe use of wastewater and safe recreational water environments, using risk assessment to identify, prioritize, manage and monitor coordinated action to protect public health.

However, the world is alarmingly off-track to deliver Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 6.2, where Member States committed to achieve universal access to safe sanitation for everyone, everywhere by 2030. In fact, the rate at which sanitation coverage is increasing will need to quadruple globally if the world is to achieve the SDG sanitation targets.

To eliminate inequalities, progress must move 4 times faster in rural areas globally, 5 times faster in urban areas globally, 9 times faster in fragile contexts and 15 times faster in least developed countries. Overall, at current rates of progress, only 67% will have safe sanitation services, leaving 2.8 billion without by 2030. Without universal access, the world will not claim the myriad health, environmental and socio-economic benefits that come from safely managed sanitation.

As part of WHO’s efforts to support capacity building globally, OpenWHO has launched a new course that unpacks the health rationale for safely managed sanitation (SMS) and how programming approaches need to adapt to improve health outcomes. A safely managed sanitation service chain – from toilets, to containment, to transport, treatment, and finally safe use or disposal of wastewater and faecal by-products – is essential to protecting the health of individuals and communities and the environment.

The course also describes SDG 6.2 monitoring definitions for SMS and how that can be adapted and contextualized into national definitions and embedded in national level instruments for implementation and monitoring. Finally, it presents tools to assess status and monitor implementation of definitions at national and local level -- all to help governments, and the development agencies, civil society partners and others working with them, to achieve safely managed sanitation for their populations.

The course will take approximately 3 hours to complete and participants have the opportunity to earn certificates and digital badges to share their achievements. Access the course here and start learning today.

Sexual violence and intimate partner violence can be especially problematic in complex emergencies and natural disasters. In these situations, civilian women and children are often targets of abuse, exploitation and violence because of their sex, age, and status in society.

As we mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November, OpenWHO invites you to join our 5-course series that provides detailed guidance on the clinical management of survivors of rape and intimate partner violence. The series is intended for qualified healthcare workers providing services to survivors of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian emergencies. It considers available resources, materials, drugs, and national policies and procedures.

The 5 courses are available on our learning channel for preventing and responding to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment (PRSEAH) as follows:

1. Introduction to the clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
2. Mental health and psychosocial support: Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
3. Management of intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
4. First-line support: Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
5. Clinical management of rape

Each course will take approximately 1 hour to complete. The series is being translated into Arabic and French for additional reach.

Learn more about International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women here.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections. It occurs when microorganisms develop resistance to medicines that are relied upon for treatment, making some conditions difficult or impossible to cure. As a result, infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

From 18-24 November, OpenWHO invites you to observe World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) by joining any the following free courses on our AMR learning channel to help improve awareness and understanding of AMR and encourage best practices:

• 6 steps for sustainable implementation of national action plans on antimicrobial resistance
• WHO costing and budgeting tool for national action plans on antimicrobial resistance
• Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in health-care facilities in low- and middle-income countries: a WHO practical toolkit
• WHO Policy Guidance on Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities
• Reducing antimicrobial resistance of treatable sexually transmitted infections in antenatal care
• Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach (available in 6 languages)

Learning saves lives. Help us spread the word about these important courses in line with this year's WAAW theme – “Preventing Antimicrobial Resistance Together”. You can learn more about WAAW here.

A majority of emerging diseases are shared by humans and animals, so adopting a One Health approach is essential. This approach is necessary to effectively prevent, detect and respond to health challenges that arise at the interface between humans, animals and the environment.

On 3 November, celebrate One Health Day by enrolling in one of the free online courses hosted on our One Health for Global Health Security learning channel. The channel provides learning resources for technical staff, decision-makers and the general public, supporting them to operationalize a One Health approach through tools, principles and best practices.

The following courses are currently available, with more to come:

• Strengthening collaboration between human and animal health sectors for improved health security
• The Joint Risk Assessment (JRA OT): A Training for Implementers
• Navigating the Tripartite Zoonoses Guide (TZG): A training for advocates and implementers

OpenWHO is excited to share that we have been selected as a Finalist in the Learning Platform of Year category of the 2023 Learning Awards.

According to the Learning Awards team, "our independent judges hand-pick only a few Finalists from many hundreds of entries worldwide, so to make the shortlist is a phenomenal achievement."

OpenWHO will present the learning platform to a panel of judges in November. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in London, United Kingdom, on 16 February 2023.

Polio is a virus that spreads from person-to-person with the ability to cause paralysis. As we mark World Polio Day on 24 October, we invite you to join our free online course to learn more about poliovirus, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partnership, and our core response strategies and the remaining challenges to eradication.

In 1988, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to eradicate polio. At the time, there were 125 endemic countries. Currently wild poliovirus remains in only two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The 1-hour training is aimed at all current and new polio staff and anyone interested in learning more about polio eradication. It utilizes short videos and quizzes to introduce the material and test your understanding, and provides the opportunity to earn a certificate and digital badge to share your achievement.

The course is currently available in English and French. Start learning today.

Food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition continue to increase globally due to the toxic combination of drivers such as conflicts and weather extremes and the effects of climate change and economic shocks.

On World Food Day 2022, we are focusing on building a sustainable world where everyone, everywhere has regular access to enough nutritious food.

OpenWHO provides a 30-minute course that introduces the basic concept of food insecurity and reviews the impact and implications of food crises on health, health systems and programming. The course also describes the structure and content of the Food Insecurity and Health Readiness and Response Strategic Framework and its 5 strategic domains – coordination and collaboration, surveillance and information, outbreak prevention and control, essential nutrition actions and health service actions – to support its use and operationalization of country-specific planning.

Celebrate World Food Day on 16 October by enrolling in the course, now available in English and French.

As we mark International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, OpenWHO is launching a new online course for urban leaders, planners and practitioners on transitioning to complex risk management and resilient urban futures.

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed a serious challenge to cities, exacerbating vulnerabilities and having a tremendous impact on urban health and well-being. The pandemic reveals the new reality: cities are living with uncertainties and facing much more complex risks. To build more resilient and sustainable urban futures, cities need to evolve to reflect the interconnectedness of people, the planet and prosperity, and need to transition to systematic risk governance with an enhanced understanding of risks.

The new course was jointly developed by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Global Education and Training Institute (UNDRR GETI), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and WHO headquarters. Based on a virtual training programme that was held from August to September 2022, the modules aim to:

• increase the understanding and capacities to manage complex and systematic disaster risks, and enhance public health emergency response preparedness and South-South cooperation;
• better prepare city stakeholders for transitioning to living with the COVID-19 pandemic, fostering collective collaboration and better preparing cities for future crises, especially health emergencies and uncertainties; and
• facilitate city-to-city partnerships in South-South and triangular cooperation towards sustainable development.

The course will take approximately 4.5 hours to complete and participants have the opportunity to earn certificates and digital badges to share their achievements. Join the course here.

New course series on the clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings

Sexual violence and intimate partner violence can be especially problematic in complex emergencies and natural disasters. In these situations, women and children are often targets of abuse, exploitation, and violence because of their sex, age and status in society. This five-course series is intended for healthcare workers providing services to survivors of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings. For a better learning experience, we recommend accessing the courses in the order listed below:

1. Introduction to the clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
2. Mental health and psychosocial support: Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
3. Management of intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
4. First-line support: Clinical management of rape and intimate partner violence in humanitarian settings
5. Clinical management of rape

New course on delivering quality health services to refugees and migrants from Ukraine

OpenWHO launched a course on delivering quality health services to refugees and migrants from Ukraine, the first WHO course in video format to support health workers in hosting and receiving countries to provide quality and safe care that is responsive to the circumstances and particular health needs of people from Ukraine seeking health assistance.

Try out our new interactive features in our new course on Chemical and Biological Deliberate events

The course CBDE Awareness: Recognizing Signs of Deliberate Release of Chemical or Biological Agents aims to ensure that emergency responders recognize possible deliberate events with chemical or biological agents and know the different response types this will require compared to other emergencies. You will have the opportunity to explore interactive videos and exercises, with pop-up texts and knowledge checks across the course modules. A new OpenWHO learning experience is at your fingertips!

New courses and languages

We are pleased to announce the following courses that were also recently made available:

• Buruli ulcer: training of health workers at national and district levels on skin Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs): This course is intended to provide basic information for front line health workers to be able to implement the recommended control measures to minimize the negative impact of Buruli ulcer on populations.

• Neglected tropical diseases: road map and sustainability framework 2021-2030: OpenWHO courses: The learning package comprises two online courses that aim to give participants a comprehensive overview of the overriding strategic goals and key challenges that NTD professionals and programmes are likely to face over the coming decade: 1) NTD road map strategy; and 2) the Sustainability Framework.

• One Health in action against Neglected Tropical Diseases: This course provides practical ideas, tools and examples to enable each of us to take One Health action towards the global goal of substantially reducing the burden of NTDs by 2030

• WHO costing and budgeting tool for national action plans on antimicrobial resistance: The aim of this course is to introduce the WHO costing and budgeting tool for national action plans on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The tool is designed to support operationalization and to accelerate implementation of national action plans on AMR.

• 6 steps for sustainable implementation of national action plans on antimicrobial resistance: This course covers the 6 steps for sustainable implementation of national action plans on AMR from the “WHO implementation handbook for national action plans on antimicrobial resistance: guidance for the human health sector”.

• Health inequality monitoring foundations courses: This 5- course series addresses the need for capacity strengthening in health inequality monitoring, with courses organized according to the following topics: an overview of terminology and concepts, data sources, health disaggregation, summary measures of health inequality and reporting.

New translations

The following 7 translations have been launched this month:

• Introduction to Monkeypox in Arabic
• Waste management in Georgian
• Mental health and psychosocial support in Spanish
• Ready4Response Tier 1 in Arabic
• Ready4Response Tier 2 in Arabic
• Empowering communities during outbreaks in Chinese and Arabic

Updates to course content

The following course materials have been revised to reflect updates to the technical content and are now up to date:

• COVID-19 vaccine-specific resources in French: Videos and resources for the Pfizer-BioNTech, Janssen, Covaxin and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines have been updated.
• Waste management in English.

We are pleased to announce that OpenWHO now has 46 courses on COVID-19, with a total of 177 courses spread across 65 languages. All courses for COVID-19 can be accessed here. You can use the toolbar to filter courses by language. You can also access our catalogues which show all courses and languages available for COVID-19 and other health topics here.

Emergency management courses accredited for Continuing Professional Development

Four OpenWHO courses have received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation, certifying that they have been independently assessed and approved for personal and professional development: Ready4Response Tier 1 and Tier 2, the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre and Health Cluster Coordination. Certificates from officially verified CPD courses indicate to learners and professional bodies that the learning value has been scrutinized to ensure both integrity and quality.

New countries added to the Serving Countries corner on OpenWHO

This portal offers learning resources to support a country's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other health threats. Created in collaboration with WHO Country Offices and Ministries of Health, resources based on WHO scientific guidance are available in each country’s official language(s) to empower frontline health workers, policymakers and the public. Armenia and Poland are the most recent additions to our Serving Countries portal.

Monthly newsletter

You can access the most recent newsletter here. The newsletter highlights are also available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

10 October is World Mental Health Day, which provides us with an opportunity to re-kindle our efforts to protect and improve mental health, including in emergencies.

OpenWHO offers an online orientation course to strengthen the competencies of health sector actors working in emergencies to establish, support and scale up Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in countries. The focus of this course is on how to apply existing practical, evidence-based, scalable tools and practice-led approaches for successful implementation of projects to strengthen MHPSS in emergencies operations, protection from mental health and psychosocial consequences of crises and towards the realization of universal mental health coverage.

Through this training, you will learn about key approaches to advocacy and to identify entry points for mental health and psychosocial integration as an integral and cross-cutting component in public health emergency responses and in humanitarian emergencies. The training will also emphasize a focus on early recovery, highlighting WHO’s past successes in building back better.

The course will take approximately 7 hours to complete, with the opportunity to earn a certificate and digital badge to share your achievement.

The training is currently available in 4 languages, which you can access below:

• English
• Español (Spanish)
• Polski (Polish)
• Українська (Ukrainian)

Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis on 24 February 2022, millions of people have fled Ukraine, crossing borders into neighbouring countries.

Refugees and migrants from Ukraine may face challenges that hinder their access to health care in hosting and receiving countries, such as linguistic, financial and cultural barriers, discrimination and social exclusion. They have specific health needs and vulnerabilities requiring culturally sensitive care that recognizes the impact of migration and displacement on their physical and mental health.

Today, WHO published Delivering quality health services to refugees and migrants from Ukraine, the first WHO course in video format to support health workers in hosting and receiving countries to provide quality and safe care that is responsive to the circumstances and particular health needs of people from Ukraine seeking health assistance.

Developed by the WHO Health and Migration Programme alongside clinicians providing health services to refugees and migrants, the 30-minute video course features six case studies that reflect the common health problems of conflict-affected populations fleeing Ukraine.

• Access the course here.
• Read the news release here.

As we mark International Translation Day on 30 September, OpenWHO is proud to offer free online public health courses in 65 different languages so that more communities can access and easily understand life-saving public health information.

Learning is easier in your own language. OpenWHO courses are translated into as many languages as possible to enhance learning uptake and retention, and advance equity in access to public health knowledge.

Languages available on our platform include 19 of the 20 most spoken languages worldwide, as well as the official languages of 44 of the 46 least-developed countries.

In total, 19.7 million words have been translated to empower people with knowledge to protect their health and the health of their communities.

Celebrate International Translation Day by learning in your language on OpenWHO!

Despite being fully preventable, dog-mediated human rabies kills tens of thousands of people every year, especially in rural and impoverished areas in Africa and Asia.

On World Rabies Day 2022, learn about rabies and the One Health approach currently taken to prevent it by enrolling in our free online course.

This course provides participants with knowledge about the biology and epidemiology of this Neglected Zoonotic Disease, the current “Zero by 30” rabies elimination strategy, and how to prevent rabies in people and dogs by taking a One Health approach. The learning package consists of 7 modules, which include downloadable video-lectures by global experts and professionals confronted with rabies in the field.

The course is available in English, French and Russian and will take approximately 3 hours to complete. You will have the opportunity to earn a course certificate and a digital badge to share your achievement on social media. Start learning today!

OpenWHO is continuing to expand its Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) learning channel, recently adding courses on how to apply One Health action to NTDs and presenting the flagship NTD road map strategy document and accompanying sustainability framework.

All 3 courses are self-paced and open to anyone interested, with the opportunity to earn course certificates and digital badges:

• One Health in action against NTDs
• Road map for NTDs 2021–2030
• Sustainability framework for action against NTDs 2021–2030

Learn more about why the road map and sustainability framework courses were developed in this WHO news post. The One Health course was also featured on the WHO website earlier this month.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, OpenWHO made our “Introduction to COVID-19” learning materials available in Indian sign language to help meet the needs of learners in one of the world’s most populous countries and beyond.

Today the course hosts 55 000 learners across 150 countries, with 88.1% of learners located in India, and other key learning communities situated in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Half of the learners are students (33.3%), health professionals (9.6%) or personnel of non-governmental organizations (8.4%).

Of the 65 languages available on the OpenWHO learning platform, Indian sign language is the 7th most popular overall.

On 23 September, celebrate International Day of Sign Languages by spreading the word about these important resources and raising awareness of the importance of sign language in the full realization of the human rights of people who are deaf. Learn more about the international day here.

On 17 September, OpenWHO invites you to observe World Patient Safety Day by expanding your knowledge in one of our free online courses. This year's theme is medication safety, in recognition that medication harm accounts for 50% of the overall preventable harm in medical care.

OpenWHO courses related to medication safety include:

• Safety in administering medicines for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs): Safety is a primary concern for NTD programmes. For example, medicines that are donated for treatment are manufactured under stringent regulatory authority guidelines or are prequalified by WHO, with considerable effort in determining safety for mass treatment and in conducting surveillance for serious adverse events. These training modules are intended to help national programmes for NTDs plan, prepare and monitor the safe administration of medicines for treatment of these diseases.

• Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach: This course will equip clinicians who frequently prescribe antimicrobials with knowledge and tools to improve their use of these essential medications in daily clinical practice. Through case based examples, the course will highlight how antimicrobial stewardship principles can be applied to common clinical scenarios.

• Standard precautions: Injection safety and needle-stick injury management: In this course, you will learn about the causes of unsafe injection practices, how to safely give injections, and how to safely dispose of needles and other sharps. You will also learn what to do when needle-stick injuries occur, how to manage potential exposures, and ways to protect yourself, the staff and patients in your facility, and your community.

You can view OpenWHO's full offering of courses on 169 health topics here.

Register here for a webinar about the new "Health Inequality Monitoring Foundations" course series on the Health Inequality Monitoring channel of OpenWHO:

When: 14 September 2022, 13:00-14:00 CET

WHO is committed to advancing health equity around the globe. Yet, in 2020, only half of countries included disaggregated data as part of their published national health statistics reports. Health inequality monitoring provides critical evidence to determine who is being left behind, and inform equity-oriented changes to policies, programmes and practices.

A new WHO eLearning course series, "Health Inequality Monitoring Foundations", addresses the need for capacity strengthening in health inequality monitoring. This 5-course series is delivered in a self-directed learning environment, designed to meet the immediate learning needs of users. It is primarily targeted to monitoring and evaluation officers, researchers, analysts, and others with a general interest in health data and inequality monitoring.

• The Overview course gives a general introduction to the health inequality monitoring cycle and related key terminology and concepts.

• The Data sources course examines the strengths, limitations and opportunities to improve common data sources for health inequality monitoring, as well as the processes of data source mapping and data linking.

• The Health data disaggregation course explores how disaggregated health data are integral across the steps of monitoring, and guides learners in assessing and reporting disaggregated data.

• The Summary measures of health inequality course discusses the general characteristics of simple and complex summary measures, and guides learners through the selection, calculation, interpretation and reporting of a range of measures.

• The Reporting course demonstrates the components of high-quality health inequality reporting, emphasizing purpose-driven, audience-centred and technically rigorous approaches.

Each course will take approximately 1.5 hours to complete and can be completed at your own pace, all at once or in several sittings. You will have the opportunity to earn a course certificate and digital badge to share your achievement on social media for all 5 courses in the series.

Additional courses are available on the Health Inequality Monitoring channel, which was recently highlighted as a tool for capacity strengthening in the International Journal for Equity in Health:

"The courses on the Health Inequality Monitoring channel demonstrate how technical information can be simplified and presented to broad audiences in a manner that is highly accessible to learners. The Health Inequality Monitoring channel on OpenWHO is an innovative and necessary addition to existing tools and resources to support the advancement of health equity."

You can read the full publication here.

As health threats continue to challenge communities across the globe, WHO is taking steps to ensure high-quality training in emergency management is available to keep people safer in these crises.

6 WHO emergency management courses have achieved Continuing Professional Development (CPD) accreditation, certifying that they have been independently assessed and approved for personal and professional development. Certificates from officially verified CPD courses indicate to learners and professional bodies that the learning value has been scrutinized to ensure both integrity and quality. The accredited training includes 2 blended courses that use a mix of online, peer and face-to-face learning methods and 4 open online courses hosted on OpenWHO.org.

The 2 blended courses make up the 2 “phases” of the Leadership in Emergencies programme, which helps WHO and Ministry of Health staff develop key leadership skills to fulfil Team Lead, Health Cluster Coordinator and Incident Manager roles in health emergencies. Initially organized in-person, the Leadership in Emergencies courses were digitalized when in-person learning was disrupted by the pandemic.

Phase 1 is an 8-week course of online classes and group work focused on developing leadership skills. Phase 2 provides concentrated and specialist training on the use of transversal skills in an emergency setting using a mix of online classes and a workshop. To date, 165 participants have attended the Phase 1 course, while 48 have attended Phase 2.

“Leadership skills are essential for health emergency response” said Andrew Black, the WHO Technical Officer who manages the Leadership programme. “We are thrilled that these courses have been accredited for Continuing Professional Development, bringing renewed credibility and benefit for learners in this critical training.”

Open online learning

The other 4 accredited courses are available in self-paced formats for anyone interested on WHO’s free online learning platform OpenWHO.org.

The Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) course, available in 9 languages, is aimed at health emergency preparedness and response professionals, policy makers and partners seeking to implement and sustain PHEOCs. A PHEOC is a physical location for the coordination of information and resources to support incident management activities.

The Health Cluster coordination course developed by the Global Health Cluster also received its accreditation. Health Clusters exist to relieve suffering and save lives in humanitarian emergencies, while advancing the well-being and dignity of affected populations. This course was designed to increase the skills and knowledge of Health Cluster teams and partners and to strengthen the efficiency and accountability of all stakeholders in responding to humanitarian crises.

The Ready4Response course series, which serves as a foundation for the Leadership in Emergencies programme, was certified earlier this year. The multi-tiered core curriculum aims to develop consistent learning standards across the emergency response workforces at national level and equips participants with essential competencies needed to work within public health emergency response. The Tier 1 course focuses on the response context and principles, while Tier 2 addresses systems, structures and skills.

Achieving these 6 accreditations further advances the WHO Health Emergencies Programme’s goal of improving health emergency response in all contexts by providing the highest quality learning content to global learners.

As we mark World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, OpenWHO is proud to host free multilingual learning resources to support the response to humanitarian crises. This includes a new course on food insecurity available in English and French, as well as 18 courses in Ukrainian to support the response to health emergencies in Ukraine.

OpenWHO also offers online courses that address many diseases currently causing outbreaks, including:

• Monkeypox: Introduction | Intermediate
• Yellow fever: Introduction
• Cholera: Introduction | Vaccines | Kits
• Polio: Introduction
• Marburg: Introduction
• Leptospirosis: Introduction
• Plague: Introduction | Resources
• Lassa fever: Introduction

Celebrating World Humanitarian Day

As we mark World Humanitarian Day on 19 August, OpenWHO is proud to host free multilingual learning resources to support the response to humanitarian crises. This includes a new course on food insecurity available in English and French, as well as 18 courses in Ukrainian to support the response to health emergencies in Ukraine.

OpenWHO also offers online courses that address many diseases currently causing outbreaks, including:

• Monkeypox: Introduction | Intermediate
• Yellow fever: Introduction
• Cholera: Introduction | Vaccines | Kits
• Polio: Introduction
• Marburg: Introduction
• Leptospirosis: Introduction
• Plague: Introduction | Resources
• Lassa fever: Introduction

New courses and languages

We are pleased to announce the following courses that were recently made available:

• The Food Insecurity and Health Readiness and Response Strategic Framework: This course introduces the basic concept of food insecurity, the main implications of food insecurity and food crises on health, health systems and programming, and the structure and content of the Strategic Framework. The course is also available in French.
• African Vaccines Regulatory Forum clinical trials inspections: This online training is designed to complement the African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF) guideline and checklist for the inspection of clinical trials.
• Malaria elimination: This course aims to equip learners with the knowledge and skills to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate a programme for malaria elimination and prevention of re-establishment of transmission.
• Inequality monitoring in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria: This course introduces the general steps of inequality monitoring in the context of HIV, TB and malaria, which should be an integral part of country programmes.
• Understanding and using WHO guidelines on tuberculosis: This course explains how TB guidelines are developed, how the GRADE approach relates, how to interpret the certainty of evidence, and how guidelines can be accessed and adapted to the local context.
• Onchocerciasis: training of health workers at national and district levels on skin-NTDs: This course examines the epidemiology of onchocerciasis, clinical aspects, impact, diagnosis, treatment and control, elimination, public health interventions and role of community health workers.
• Noma: training of health workers at national and district levels on skin-NTDs: This course addresses epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical features, diagnosis, treatment and public health considerations, including the human rights perspective of noma.

New translations

The following 19 translations have been launched this month:

• Cholera in Ukrainian
• SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic testing in Arabic, Spanish and Portuguese
• Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for COVID-19 in Georgian
• Hand hygiene in Armenian
• Introduction to IPC in Armenian
• Go.Data in French
• Ready for Response Tier 1 in French
• Ready for Response Tier 2 in French
• Vaccine safety basics in Chinese
• Clinical management of patients with COVID-19: Initial approach to the acutely ill patient in Russian
• Empowering communities before, during, and after an infectious disease outbreak in Spanish and Russian
• Social and behavioural insights COVID-19 data collection tool in French
• African Vaccines Regulatory Forum clinical trials inspections in French and Portuguese
• Mycetoma in Arabic
• Tungiasis in French

Updates to course content

The following course materials have been revised to reflect updates to the technical content and are now up to date:

• COVID-19 vaccine-specific resources in English: Videos and resources for the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Janssen COVID-19 vaccines have been updated.
• Cholera Introduction in English.

We are pleased to announce that OpenWHO now has 46 courses on COVID-19, with a total of 165 courses spread across 65 languages. All courses for COVID-19 can be accessed here. You can use the toolbar to filter courses by language. You can also access our catalogues which show all courses and languages available for COVID-19 and other health topics here.

Monthly newsletter

You can access the most recent newsletter here. The newsletter highlights are also available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

As we mark International Youth Day, OpenWHO invites you to sign up for our free course on mycetoma, available on the Neglected Tropical Diseases learning channel.

Mycetoma is a chronic, disfiguring disease usually of the foot but any part of the body can be affected. The disease commonly affects young adults, mostly males aged between 15 and 30 years in developing, tropical countries. People of low socioeconomic status and manual workers such as agriculturalists, labourers and herdsmen are the worst affected.

Mycetoma has numerous adverse medical, health and socioeconomic impacts on patients, families and their communities. Accurate data on its incidence and prevalence are not available. Treatment is often unsatisfactory in people with advanced disease and amputation may be required. Therefore, early detection and management are important to reduce morbidity and improve outcomes.

The aim of this 30-minute course is to provide information about mycetoma to increase the knowledge and skills of national and front-line health workers to address this disease. A Record of Achievement certificate will be issued to participants who receive at least 80% on the post-test. The course is currently available in English and Arabic. Sign up today!

The World Health Organization is celebrating a new milestone in online learning: 7 million enrolments in OpenWHO.org’s free public health courses!

The record-setting participation comes as health emergencies continue to affect communities across the globe, generating demand for trusted and accessible public health knowledge. OpenWHO course enrolments have surged more than 4000% percent in just over 2.5 years, increasing from 160 000 in January 2020 to 7 million in August 2022.

The OpenWHO platform hosts courses on 165 public health topics, including training to support the response to outbreaks like the COVID-19 pandemic, monkeypox, polio, cholera, Marburg virus disease and plague, as well as for ongoing events like food insecurity and the crisis in Ukraine.

Courses are available in 65 languages – most recently adding Georgian to the offering – so that communities can access life-saving public health information in their native languages, making it easier to understand. This includes the 15 most commonly spoken languages worldwide and the official languages of 44 out of 46 of the least-developed countries.

More than 3.7 million course certificates have been issued to OpenWHO learners, who have shared more than 50 000 digital badges on social media to celebrate their achievements.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for people across the world to access the trusted, science-based public health information that they need,” said Heini Utunen, acting Head of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme’s Learning and Capacity Development Unit, which manages the OpenWHO platform. “Equity is the cornerstone of our learning response to health emergencies.”

OpenWHO’s global community of learners recently shared examples of how they have benefited from the learning platform at an open webinar celebrating OpenWHO’s 5th anniversary.

“I have learned many things about the COVID-19 pandemic from courses of the OpenWHO programme,” one learner said. “It literally helps me to speak with my local community. Because I am a pharmacist, I have been asked so many questions about risk, possibilities and about medications and I have shared the knowledge that I got from professionals from these courses.”

“I would like to thank everyone who contributed to developing this wonderful idea and providing this valuable information for free,” said another OpenWHO learner.

OpenWHO: Open to all, anytime, from anywhere. Start learning today.

Business Post Nigeria highlighted OpenWHO's new free online course on noma in a recent news article.

“This course will be a useful self-learning tool for health workers to increase their capacity to prevent, identify, treat and refer noma considering both public health and human rights aspects.

“Officers in charge of noma at the national and district level can also utilize the course material to train primary care workers,” says Yuka Makino, a technical officer for oral health at the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Noma (cancrum oris) is a serious gangrenous disease of the mouth and face, mainly affecting children aged 2 to 6 years in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite substantial knowledge gaps, it is reported to be linked with malnutrition, poor oral hygiene, immunosuppression and living in extreme poverty situations.

The aim of the course is to provide information about noma, and to increase the knowledge and skills of national and front-line health workers to help them prevent, identify and treat this disease. A Record of Achievement certificate will be available to participants who score at least 80% in the final assessment.

Given the challenges in capturing up-to-date social and behavioural data in emergencies, WHO has developed the ‘Social and Behavioural Insights COVID-19 Data Collection Tool for Africa’ (available in English, French and Portuguese).

Recently a course explaining how to use the tool was launched in English and is now available in French. The course is part of the SocialNet series supporting social science, risk communication and community engagement in response to health emergencies, with additional courses expected to launch in the coming months.

• Version française : https://openwho.org/courses/sbi-tool-fr
• English version: https://openwho.org/courses/sbi-tool

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction Global Education and Training Institute (UNDRR GETI), United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and WHO have joined together to deliver a unique online training for local authorities and urban practitioners: Transitioning to Complex Risk Management and Resilient Urban Futures: Harnessing South-South Cooperation and Learning from COVID-19.

The training will be held on 23 and 30 August and 6 and 13 September 2022, for a total of 4 online sessions in English with simultaneous interpretation in Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The programme includes an end-of-course assessment and a post-course survey.

Register for the training before 15 August 2022 at https://virtual-expo.southsouth-galaxy.org/en/SSC-DRR-PAHO-WHO-joint-training.

More information is available at https://www.undrr.org/event/undrr-unossc-who-paho2022.

WHO has launched its introductory online course on cholera in Ukrainian on the free OpenWHO.org learning platform, responding to the ongoing risk of cholera outbreak in Ukraine.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food. It can lead to dehydration, and death in patients with severe forms of the disease. The 1-hour self-paced introductory level course is intended for personnel responsible for prevention and control of cholera and for those involved in cholera outbreaks and response.

The WHO Country Office in Ukraine has worked closely with the Learning and Capacity Development Unit in WHO headquarters on the development of OpenWHO courses in Ukraine's national language. This course is the 18th to launch on OpenWHO’s Ukraine learning channel to support the country’s preparedness for and response to public health emergencies. Additional Ukrainian courses are currently under development on a variety of topics, including rabies, health and peace, operational readiness, health emergency response and vaccine safety.

We are committed to increasing equitable access to learning. Part of this commitment includes providing learning in learners' preferred languages. We are proud to say that Ready4Response Tiers 1 and 2 – our foundational courses – are now available on OpenWHO.org in French:

• Ready4Response Niveau 1 : Contexte et principes de réponse
• Ready4Response Niveau 2 : Systèmes, structures et compétences

Ready4Response is a multi-tiered core curriculum that aims to develop consistent learning standards across the emergency response workforces at national level. It equips participants with essential competencies needed to work within public health emergency response.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that all countries are challenged in their abilities to respond to emergencies. Having access to the right people, with the right skills and training, at the right time and location is essential to saving lives and protecting the health of people, societies and economies during an emergency.

Tier 1 provides context and principles of the all-hazards approach to emergency response, outlining the various actors involved, their roles and structural relationships. It also examines in-depth WHO's role in response, and discusses core ethics and principles all responders must follow.

Tier 2 focuses on the Incident Management System (IMS) and its core functions. It also examines core skills required to work effectively in a response team and describes the basic principles of risk management.

Both Ready4Response courses are "Continuing Professional Development" certified. Tier 1 is also available in English, Portuguese and Lao, and Tier 2 is also available in English and Lao.

Food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition continue to increase globally due to the toxic combination of drivers such as conflicts and weather extremes and the effects of climate change and economic shocks.

Food crises are also health emergencies: food shortages and factors associated with them determine an increase in the nutrition and health risks of the population affected and a consequent increase in the need for preventive and curative health care. While malnutrition increases risk of new diseases and of deterioration of existing diseases, especially among children, pregnant and lactating women (PLWs), people living with chronic diseases and disabilities, and the elderly, food insecurity also contributes to deterioration in health-seeking behaviour and increasing access barriers to health care with consequent negative impact on service coverage – especially in a context where health systems are already under-resourced and disrupted.

As the role of WHO and of the health sector in food insecurity and food crises has been often underestimated and neglected, an internal WHO strategic framework for readiness and preparedness was elaborated by a dedicated multi-departmental working group, in collaboration with the Eastern Mediterranean and African regions, to support the strengthening of WHO national capacities for a more prompt, effective and resilient health system response to food insecurity and famine.

The course "The Food Insecurity and Health Readiness and Response Strategic Framework" provides an introduction to the basic concepts of food insecurity, the impact and implications of food crises in health, health systems and programming, and the structure and content of the Strategic Framework and its 5 strategic domains (coordination and collaboration, surveillance and information, outbreak prevention and control, essential nutrition actions, health service actions) to support its use and operationalization in the framework of country-specific planning.

Health inequalities exist in every population. A health inequality refers to an observable difference in health between subgroups in a population. With the necessary data, health inequalities can be measured, compared and tracked over time.

OpenWHO has launched a new learning channel that includes training courses about the foundations of health inequality monitoring, its application to specific topics and skill building. Health inequality monitoring entails quantifying and assessing health inequalities in a defined population to inform where changes are needed to advance health equity.

Two courses are currently available on the channel:

• Inequality monitoring in HIV, tuberculosis and malaria
• Inequality monitoring in immunization

Digital technologies have proven potential to enhance health outcomes by improving medical diagnosis, data-based treatment decisions, digital therapeutics, clinical trials, self-management of care and person-centred care, as well as creating more evidence-based knowledge, skills and competence for professionals to support health care.

OpenWHO's new Digital Health and Innovation channel provides advice on how to expand the use of digital technologies and maximize the opportunities of the digital transformation of health care to enable sustainable health systems and universal health coverage, while avoiding pitfalls and managing risks.

The channel currently hosts one course on ethics and governance of artificial intelligence (AI) for health and will continue to expand its offerings in the coming months.

Adapted from the core contents of the Guidance on Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health, the course introduces entry-level knowledge to policymakers, AI developers and designers, and health care providers who are involved in designing, developing, using and regulating AI technology for health.

AI has enormous potential for improving health outcomes and helping countries achieve universal health coverage. However, for AI to have a beneficial impact on people’s health, ethical considerations and human rights must be placed at the centre of its design, development and use.

The course will take approximately 3.5 hours to complete, and offers both Confirmation of Participation and Record of Achievement certificates. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download a digital badge for the course.

As OpenWHO celebrated 5 years of operations, the learning platform's role in providing trusted information during emergency response was highlighted on the openSAP Invites Thought Leaders podcast.

The episode featured Heini Utunen, who serves as Acting Head of the Learning and Capacity Development Unit in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme and manages the OpenWHO platform. You can listen to the podcast here.

"Our contribution to the learning in public health is that of equity," Utunen said. "We believe that it's the cornerstone for any action that we take with learning materials and learning interventions to enable as many people as possible to access and utilize the materials and make it as easy as possible for the learner to join the learning journey."

The European Union for Azerbaijan highlighted the growing popularity of the OpenWHO learning platform among Azerbaijani health workers in a recent news story.

The story reported a tenfold increase in participation over the last 6 months to 18 000 enrolments. It also included feedback from health workers who have utilized the learning platform, including Dr Ziyafat Guliyeva who completed 81 OpenWHO courses.

“OpenWHO provides lots of opportunities. I found it very useful that learning methods on disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment include not only written materials, but video clips with details, as well. I got acquainted with the new methodology on taking medications along with the modern diagnostics techniques”, says Dr Guliyeva.

Read the full story from the European Union for Azerbaijan here.

OpenWHO's Azerbaijan learning channel, which includes a course in Azerbaijani and links to additional courses in Russian and Turkish, is available here.

On 19 October 2021, WHO launched its position paper Building health systems resilience for universal health coverage and health security during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond to support countries in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This reinforces the need for an integrated approach to building health systems resilience in the context of unprecedented public and political calls for greater resilience in health systems to tackle diverse and complex public health challenges – from acute to chronic shocks – those countries are facing in the 21st century.

To help address this, OpenWHO has launched a free course that introduces health systems resilience attributes and key requirements for enabling system resilience with an integrated approach across policymaking, planning, operational levels and in monitoring and evaluation efforts. The target audiences are policy makers, managers and other current and aspiring leaders in health, particularly those responsible for public health management at national, subnational and service delivery levels.

By the end of this course, participants will develop the knowledge and skills to apply an integrated approach to making health systems resilient to public health challenges. Participants will be awarded a Certificate of Participation by completing at least 80% of the course material, and a Certificate of Achievement by earning at least 80% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.

Join the course here: *An integrated approach to building health systems resilience*

Each year on 6 June, we celebrate the Russian language – one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations – on Russian Language Day.

OpenWHO currently hosts 33 courses in Russian, with additional courses in translation.

Celebrate Russian Language Day by enrolling in one of our free Russian courses today!

We are celebrating 5 years of our open learning platform! You can view our OpenWHO scrapbook and other 5th anniversary materials here.

As a reminder, please join us for a webinar on Wednesday, 1 June 2022 celebrating this exciting milestone. The free event will be held from 11:30 – 13:30 CEST and is open to anyone interested. Register for the webinar here.

WHO launched OpenWHO in June 2017 to facilitate the transfer of public health knowledge for emergencies on a massive scale in anticipation of the next pandemic. Grounded in the principles of open access and equity, courses are free, self-paced, accessible in low-bandwidth and offline formats, and available in national and local languages.

After serving responders in outbreaks from Ebola to plague, OpenWHO dramatically scaled up course production for the COVID-19 pandemic, making life-saving information from WHO experts available online at a time when lockdowns and social distancing limited our ability to physically come together to learn.

The 1 June webinar will be divided into 2 parts:

1. Behind the scenes with OpenWHO (11:30 – 12:30 CEST)
   This session will explore OpenWHO’s journey from June 2017 to today with WHO leaders who shaped the open learning platform and paved the way for its pandemic response.

2. Disseminating learning for vulnerable contexts (12:30 – 13:30 CEST)
   This session will feature partners’ experiences disseminating public health emergency learning and the impact it has made on vulnerable contexts.

We look forward to seeing you on 1 June to celebrate 5 years of OpenWHO!

Monkeypox courses available in English and French

In the wake of recent monkeypox outbreaks, learn more and be prepared to respond through OpenWHO courses on monkeypox. An introductory course about the disease, routes of transmission, clinical symptoms, and prevention and control strategies for health care personnel is available, as well as a more in-depth intermediate course designed for public health officials and health workers. The courses are available in English and French.

• Monkeypox: Introductory course for African outbreak contexts: English | French

• Monkeypox: Epidemiology, preparedness and response for African outbreak contexts: English | French

Please note that the content and scope of these courses on monkeypox have been tailored for outbreaks in African countries where the disease is endemic. The course materials were last updated in 2021 (intermediate course) and 2020 (introductory course).

You’re invited: Webinar celebrating 5 years of OpenWHO

On 1 June 2022, please join us for a webinar celebrating 5 years of WHO’s open learning platform for health emergencies, OpenWHO.org. The free event will be held from 11:30 – 13:30 CEST and is open to anyone interested.

The webinar will be divided into 2 parts:

1. Behind the scenes with OpenWHO (11:30 – 12:30 CEST) : This session will explore OpenWHO’s journey from June 2017 to today with WHO leaders who shaped the open learning platform and paved the way for its pandemic response.
2. Disseminating learning for vulnerable contexts (12:30 – 13:30 CEST): This session will feature partners’ experiences disseminating public health emergency learning and the impact it has made on vulnerable contexts.

Register for the webinar here.

New courses and languages

• Introducing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in emergencies: This online course aims to strengthen the competencies of health sector actors working in emergencies to establish, support and scale up Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in countries. The course is currently available in English, Polish and Ukrainian.

We are pleased to announce the following COVID-19 courses:

• COVID-19 national survey package: This course provides an overview of key considerations to support country offices to work with partners to improve national data collection.

• How systematic listening and community feedback can help us better respond to COVID-19: This training provides a description of current practices and challenges to systematically listen to communities and respond to their feedback.

New courses on other health topics:

• Ultra-low temperature vaccine management: This course is meant to provide the background and context for the ultra-cold chain management for emergency Ebola vaccination and certain COVID-19 vaccines.
• Social prescribing: This course helps introduce social prescribing at the community level, with a special focus on the Western Pacific region.
• Healthy and safe telework: This online training provides guidance to teleworkers and their managers on protecting and promoting health and wellbeing while teleworking.
• Caregiver Skills Training for Families of Children with Developmental Delays or Disabilities: This course is for caregivers of children ages 2 to 9 years with developmental delays or disabilities, especially in the domains of communication and social interaction.
• WHO Policy Guidance on Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities: This training provides learners with understanding on the need for antimicrobial stewardship (AMS), insights into what AMS entails, how it can best be implemented and what Assessment Tools are available to enable a successful AMS implementation.
• Antimicrobial stewardship programmes in health-care facilities in low- and middle-income countries: a WHO practical toolkit: This course focuses on providing practical guidance in implementing AMS programmes within local contexts and explores the Assessment Tools that are available to enable a successful AMS implementation.

New translations

The following 12 translations have been launched this month:

• MHPSS in emergencies in Polish and Ukrainian
• Rabies in French and Russian
• COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment costing in Macedonian
• Infection Prevention and Control leadership in Macedonian
• Standard Operating Procedures for emergencies in Arabic
• Waste management in Macedonian
• Environmental cleaning in Macedonian
• Antimicrobial stewardship in Macedonian
• Engaging the private sector to deliver COVID-19 tools in French and Russian

Updates to course content

The following course materials have been revised to reflect updates to the technical content and are now up to date:

• COVID-19 vaccine-specific resources in English. Videos and resources for the COVAXIN and Covovax and Nuvaxovid vaccines have been made available.

We are pleased to announce that OpenWHO now has 46 courses on COVID-19, with a total of 155 courses spread across 64 languages. All courses for COVID-19 can be accessed here. You can use the toolbar to filter courses by language. You can also access our catalogues which show all courses and languages available for COVID-19 and other health topics here.

NoExcuse #StopSEAH webinar series on OpenWHO

WHO is committed to capacitating our workforce, partners and collaborators to prevent, protect from and respond effectively and quickly to any allegation of Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (SEAH). A new session has been recently added to OpenWHO on positive masculinity to ignite cultural change for the prevention and response to sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

Monthly newsletter

You can access the most recent newsletter here. The newsletter highlights are also available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Best wishes,

OpenWHO team

Human monkeypox is a rare emerging zoonotic disease of concern since it was first identified in humans in the seventies. It is one of the first epidemic-prone disease learning resources made available on the OpenWHO platform, in 2018.

Working collaboratively with WHO expert teams, the introductory course was launched and updated on OpenWHO to provide a general overview of the disease, describing its emergence, routes of transmission, symptomatology, and prevention and control strategies for health care personnel in charge of disease prevention and control and for the general public.

A more in-depth intermediate course is also available, designed for public health officials and health workers, for an advanced understanding of its epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment, as well as effective strategies for prevention, investigation and response to outbreaks.

• Monkeypox: Introductory course for African outbreak contexts: English | Français
• Monkeypox: Epidemiology, preparedness and response for African outbreak contexts: English | Français

Please note that the content and scope of these courses on monkeypox have been tailored for outbreaks in African countries where the disease is endemic. The course materials were last updated in 2021 (intermediate course) and 2020 (introductory course).

On 1 June 2022, please join us for a webinar celebrating 5 years of WHO’s open learning platform for health emergencies, OpenWHO.org. The free event will be held from 11:30 – 13:30 CEST and is open to anyone interested.

Register for the webinar here.

WHO launched OpenWHO in June 2017 to facilitate the transfer of public health knowledge for emergencies on a massive scale in anticipation of the next pandemic. Grounded in the principles of open access and equity, courses are free, self-paced, accessible in low-bandwidth and offline formats, and available in national and local languages.

After serving responders in outbreaks from Ebola to plague, OpenWHO dramatically scaled up course production for the COVID-19 pandemic, making life-saving information from WHO experts available online at a time when lockdowns and social distancing limited our ability to physically come together to learn.

The 1 June webinar will be divided into 2 parts:

1. Behind the scenes with OpenWHO (11:30 – 12:30 CEST)
   This session will explore OpenWHO’s journey from June 2017 to today with WHO leaders who shaped the open learning platform and paved the way for its pandemic response.

2. Disseminating learning for vulnerable contexts (12:30 – 13:30 CEST)
   This session will feature partners’ experiences disseminating public health emergency learning and the impact it has made on vulnerable contexts.

We look forward to seeing you on 1 June to celebrate 5 years of OpenWHO!

As we mark Mental Health Awareness Month, we are pleased to offer a new WHO online course in English, Ukrainian and Polish that introduces participants to Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in emergencies.

This free course presents how to apply existing practical, evidence-based, scalable tools and practice-led approaches for the successful implementation of projects to strengthen Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in emergencies – all based on WHO, Inter-Agency Standing Committee and Sphere Handbook content. The online orientation is designed to strengthen the competencies of health sector actors working in emergencies to establish, support and scale-up MHPSS in countries.

The primary audience of this course is humanitarian health sector staff seeking to integrate MHPSS into their programmes. This includes WHO Health Emergencies Programme staff and humanitarian actors from United Nations agencies, NGOs and governments. In addition, professional officers working in areas such as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), reproductive health and HIV in country offices, humanitarian organizations and Ministries of Health will benefit from participating in at least some of the course modules.

The 7-hour course can be taken wherever, whenever you want on OpenWHO.org, all at once or in several sittings. You have the opportunity to earn a certificate for test-based achievement, as well as a digital badge to share your achievement with your networks. The course will be available later in additional languages.

You can access the MHPSS training here.

Help us spread the word: OpenWHO is hosting a virtual booth as part of the Global South-South Development (GSSD) Expo 2022!

Co-hosted by the Government of Thailand and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the theme of this year's expo is “Advancing South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable COVID-19 Recovery: Towards a Smart and Resilient Future”. The annual event is organized by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) to showcase evidence-based development solutions in collaboration with United Nations agencies and other partners.

Our virtual booth – which is now live – showcases OpenWHO.org and how we leave no one behind by promoting health literacy and equity through the massive online delivery of life-saving health knowledge. If you visit from 9-13 May, you will have the opportunity to chat with OpenWHO team members according to the posted schedule.

To access our virtual booth, live chat and the entire virtual exhibition, please follow the steps below:

• Step 1: Go to the main GSSD Expo 2022 website.

• Step 2: Register using the "General Visitors Registration" button or the direct link here.

• Step 3: Once you have registered, click “Login” to enter the platform.

• Step 4: Once inside the platform, you will see the main lobby of the virtual GSSD Expo. Click "Exhibition" in the lobby or the "Exhibit Hall 1" tab in the upper menu, and OpenWHO’s booth will be the first to appear.

Hope to see you and your colleagues there!