As part of its mission to provide essential knowledge to emergency responders around the world, OpenWHO has developed a new series of courses supporting the work on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP).

Since OpenWHO’s launch last year, the Pandemic and epidemic-prone diseases course has proven extremely popular, with registration surpassing 3,600 participants from nearly 100 different countries. OpenWHO now also offers independent courses on specific diseases, including the different types of influenza threats:

• Avian and other zoonotic influenza: Introduction [EN] [FR],
• Pandemic influenza: Introduction [EN] [FR] and
• Seasonal influenza: Introduction [EN] [FR].

Recognizing the importance of surveillance and understanding the impacts of an influenza outbreak, OpenWHO has added new courses that provide responders and policy makers alike with helpful tools for developing strategies:

• Estimating the burden of seasonal influenza [EN],
• Influenza sentinel surveillance training [EN] and
• Pandemic Influenza Severity Assessment (PISA) [EN].

Improving risk communication capacities at all levels is an essential aspect of preparing for the potential of an influenza pandemic. That is why OpenWHO has dedicated several courses to this cross-cutting discipline:

• Communication Essentials for Member States [EN],
• Public health interventions in pandemics and epidemics [EN],
• Risk communication essentials [EN] and
• Risk communication for influenza events [EN/FR/SP].

OpenWHO’s growing course catalog has helped make WHO guidance on Pandemic Influenza Preparedness more accessible and actionable.

We are pleased to announce the online course “Cholera: Revised Cholera Kits and Cholera Kits calculation tool” on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/cholera-kits.

In 2016 WHO introduced the Cholera Kits. These kits replace the Interagency Diarrhoeal Disease Kit (IDDK) which had been used for many years. The Cholera Kits are designed to be flexible and adaptable for preparedness and outbreak response in different contexts.

This course is made up of two parts: a short introduction to the Cholera Kits and modules, and a demonstration of the Cholera Kit Calculation Tool that provides a quick and simple way to calculate needs for the new Cholera Kits and modules.

It will take approximately 1 hour to complete the entire course.

The information note, packing lists and the Kit Calculation Tool are all available from the WHO website at: http://www.who.int/cholera/kit/en/

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

WHO has supported the Rohingya crisis response in Cox's Bazar through various public health interventions. At the core of this work was clinical management of diphtheria. A number of training materials were developed for the response, including both online learning and face-to-face training.

In December 2017, the WHO Health Emergencies Programme launched an online learning for clinical staff on respiratory diphtheria through the OpenWHO.org platform. The 4-hour course targets clinicians caring for patients during outbreaks in vulnerable settings, such as in Cox's Bazar. It is also applicable to clinicians working in settings that share similar challenges, due to limitations of: laboratory capacity, availability of treatment facilities, number of trained staff, medications, medical supplies, and supportive care.

300 clinical experts took the course within the first month of its launch, with the majority of enrolments from Bangladesh, but also from India and Yemen. With the OpenWHO App, users can now view course content on a mobile device, with or without internet connection, once it has been downloaded: an important feature needed in vulnerable settings. Material is now being translated into Bahasa Indonesia and Arabic.

Course link: https://openwho.org/courses/diphtheria-clinical-management

We are pleased to announce the release of WHO first ever evidence-based guideline on Emergency Risk Communication.

During public health emergencies, people need to know what health risks they face, and what actions they can take to protect their lives, their health, their families and communities.The recommendations in this guideline provide overarching, evidence-based guidance on how risk communication should be practised in an emergency. The recommendations also guide countries on building capacity for communicating risk during health emergencies.

Read the guidelines here Join OpenWHO risk communication essentials course here WHO’s work in risk communication

We are pleased to announce the online course “Antimicrobial Stewardship: A competency-based approach” on OpenWHO. You can access the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/AMR-competency

This course will provide a framework for approaching each clinical encounter from the perspective of combating antimicrobial resistance. Using case based examples the course will highlight how antimicrobial stewardship principles can be applied to common clinical scenarios. Modules A – E will review foundational clinical knowledge necessary to use antimicrobials wisely. Modules F – N will illustrate how clinicians can incorporate this knowledge into the management of patients with common infections through adherence to the five Core Competencies of appropriate antimicrobial prescribing. This course is meant to assist you in clinical practice and inspire you to be a champion of antimicrobial stewardship.

The course will take approximately 8 hours to finish. A confirmation of participation is issued to those who have completed at least 80% of the course material.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team wishes you a successful training!

The 21st century poses new and persistent challenges in detecting and managing infectious hazards: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), influenza and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) are examples that can be added to more recent health emergencies, such as Ebola or Zika. These outbreaks and epidemics have highlighted the need to systematically include social science-based interventions (SSI) in any health emergency response.

While medical anthropologists and social scientists have been part of outbreak response teams in the past, recent outbreaks underscored the fact that most social scientists are not systematically embedded into response operations and there is no framework to consider their inputs and advice to inform real-time decision-making by incident managers, emergency operations centre leads and others.

WHO has therefore established SocialNET, a network of social scientists with the required qualifications and operational experiences to work in epidemics, pandemics and other health emergencies.

There are currently 24 social scientists trained and available to be deployed to countries in need for support in preparedness and response to health emergencies.

The SocialNET network is composed of a pool of social scientists trained to work as part of the health operations in the field, in close collaboration with key stakeholders, including focal persons for community engagement, risk communication and public communication.

They are ready to deploy to countries during non-emergency periods to help build capacity for integrating social science-based approaches and interventions for emergency response, build up baseline social and cultural data that relate to known risky behaviours, and mitigate health risks.

All social scientists within the pool have underwent an intense WHO training on how to work in health emergencies. The training consisted of three parts: 1) An online course on OpenWHO, a WHO training platform for health emergencies; 2) A face-to-face classroom discussions and exercises; and 3) A face-to-face simulation exercise to put theory into practice.

We are pleased to announce the online course “Incident Management System” on OpenWHO, now both in English and in French. You can access the English version of the course through the following link: https://openwho.org/courses/incident-management-system

First tier of a series of training developed by the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme (WHE), this course aims at strengthening WHO staff competencies, skills and knowledge to enhance WHE’s deployment and response capability. It includes four animated modules covering an introduction to emergency management, WHO’s role in emergencies, the emergency response framework and the incident management system. You will have the opportunity to participate on the course discussion board, share experiences and gain insights from other experts working in this field.

This first tier corresponds with the mandatory minimum package that all personnel being deployed on a WHO health emergency response must complete. Any organization or person external to WHO that will be deployed in response to a health emergency is encouraged to participate.

The course takes approximately 3 hours to complete. A certificate will be issued upon completion of the course material.

Hoping to count you among the participants, the OpenWHO team whished you a successful training!

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C’est avec un grand plaisir que nous vous annonçons le cours en ligne « Système de gestion des incidents » sur OpenWHO en français. Vous pouvez accéder au cours via le lien suivant: https://openwho.org/courses/systeme-de-gestion-des-incidents/

Premier d’une série de cours développée par le Programme d'urgence de l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (WHE), ce cours a pour objectif de renforcer les compétences et les connaissances du personnel de l'OMS pour le déploiement et les interventions d'urgence. Ce cours comporte quatre modules animés couvrant une introduction à la gestion des urgences, le rôle de l’OMS dans les urgences, le cadre d’intervention d’urgence et le système de gestion des incidents. Vous aurez l’opportunité de participer à un forum de discussion pour partager vos expériences et échanger des idées avec d'autres experts travaillant dans ce domaine.

Toute personne déployée sur une réponse d'urgence sanitaire de l'OMS doit compléter ce cours. Les organisations et personnes externes à l’OMS déployées sur une réponse à une urgence sanitaire sont également encouragées à participer.

Le cours dure environ 3 heures. Un certificat sera délivré en fin de formation.

En espérant vous compter parmi les participants, l’équipe OpenWHO vous souhaite un bon apprentissage!

More than 100 WHO staff members and partners from all three levels of the organization are taking part in knowledge exchange and team building initiative “Managing epidemics of the 21st century”. This three-phase, WHO-certified learning programme helps shape the work for the future generations of participants and frontline responders in health emergencies.

The initiative is part of WHO's reforms to improve its work in health emergencies to meet expectations from governments, partners, stakeholders, donors and decision-makers for technical excellence and sound public health advice and actions. Three phases of the learning programme include:

· on-line preparation on OpenWHO.org platform in February-March 2017

· face-to-face workshop in Dakar, Senegal, 21-23 March 2017

· follow up with monthly on-line briefings during May-November 2017

Stronger collaboration with partners

The face-to-face workshop on 21-23 March 2017 in Dakar, Senegal brought together 125 participants from 45 African countries, including WHO staff and donors, such as CDC, UNICEF, IFRC, the World Bank, ECHO and USAID to maximize expertise-sharing, build-up of competences, and common approaches through interactive exercises.

“Recent experience has highlighted that major epidemics in the 21st century highlight the need for a system to quickly transform scientific knowledge into action on the ground," said Dr Gaya Gamhewage, Manager of Interventions and Guidance team at WHO. "Knowledge that is understandable and actionable is essential to mounting an effective response to save lives, minimize illness, and prevent unnecessary damage to societies and economies."

“It is essential that our experts, staff, and teams have the latest science and knowledge to work with colleagues across the Organization to deal with disease outbreaks effectively and efficiently. AFRO Member States, and those beyond the region, depend on us to quickly identify infectious hazards, detect outbreaks and launch fast, effective responses.”

Workshop produced a set of recommendations and key actions to be taken in different levels of the organization and listed the areas to be further explored in the learning programme.

Participants will continue to use WHO's new learning platform OpenWHO to follow new learning courses, discussions, and briefings related to health emergencies.

Major epidemics in the 21st century highlight the need for a system to quickly transform scientific knowledge into action on the ground. Knowledge that is understandable and actionable is essential to mounting an effective response to save lives, minimize illness and to prevent unnecessary damage to societies and economies.

"As we launch this new programme of WHO in emergencies, at the core of the reforms is ensuring that WHO's response to infectious disease outbreaks is at the cutting edge," said Dr Peter Salama, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE).

To maximize expertise-sharing and build-up of competences and common approaches among Infectious Hazards Management personnel at all three levels of the Organization, more than 125 experts will come together for a joint, interactive face-to-face workshop taking place on 21-23 March 2017 in Dakar, Senegal.

"When we have risk in one region, it can also be in another region very quickly because of the density of transport and people moving from one country to the other," said Dr Ibrahima-soce Fall, AFRO Regional Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme (RED/WHA). "We really need to work together to analyze the risk and to have the mechanism for experience sharing."

This workshop will be a culmination of an ongoing online preparation, which currently takes place on the OpenWHO platform. It aims to bring all participants to a similar level of expertise regarding priority diseases and cross-cutting issues in Africa.