The WHO Health Emergencies Programme’s Knowledge Transfer Team, together with disease technical experts, has created an online learning pathway for Ebola responders. There are currently 5 different learning resources on OpenWHO.org in English and French and each of them addresses a different type of learning need, from a disease introduction, to a staff pre-deployment briefing, to a function-specific resource for clinical management of Ebola.
he need for knowledge transfer in infectious disease outbreaks was recognized during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Similarly, in all major epidemics of past years, including yellow fever and Zika, there has been an increased need for a system that quickly transforms scientific knowledge into action on the ground. OpenWHO.org was born from that need.
One year after the launch, the OpenWHO platform has been particularly useful for emergencies and its suitability has been tested in real time during recent responses: the plague outbreak in Madagascar; clinical management of diphtheria for the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh; the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria; and the Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
For the Ebola outbreaks in DRC, materials were produced at very short notice and distributed to and used by responders on the front lines, as well as in neighbouring countries. The outbreaks occurred in Uélé province (2017) and Équateur province (2018), and, as of August 2018, there is an outbreak in North Kivu province.
The importance of producing accurate materials in the appropriate formats and languages at the right time is central to this work. The Ebola-specific learning pathway includes resources for frontline responders in Lingala and Congolese Swahili, which are the most-spoken languages in the affected provinces.
The following materials are available on OpenWHO.org in support of the Ebola response:
Ebola: Introduction
This introductory course covers signs, symptoms and transmission of Ebola, preventive and control measures, as well as the main public health concerns during an outbreak, and is available in 4 languages: English, French, Lingala and Swahili.
Ebola: Knowledge resources for responders
This course contains an introductory module on Ebola virus disease, a module on building trust and engaging communities in Ebola outbreak response, and a knowledge pack – an interactive pdf linking to the most up-to-date key technical documents for the response.
ePROTECT – Occupational health and safety briefing
The ePROTECT course provides the basic information one needs to protect personnel when deploying to countries with Ebola.
Ebola: GO pre-deployment training
Ebola: GO 2.0 was developed in 2018 for WHO deployees to work safely and effectively as part of teams bringing Ebola outbreaks under control. The learning material is designed to complement the updated ePROTECT training.
Ebola: Clinical management of Ebola virus disease
This course is based on the WHO Viral Haemorrhagic Fever pocket guide and adapted from materials developed by the WHO EDCARN network. It provides practical information for clinicians providing direct care.