The GO training package was developed by the World Health Organization for use by staff, consultants and partners who are part of the emergency response, so that they can work safely as part of the teams working to bring the outbreak under control.
Training outline:
Module 1: Pre-deployment tr...aining
Module 2: Introduction to Ebola
Module 3: Global Ebola response
Module 4: Pillars of the global Ebola response
Module 5: Working with WHO
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The paper sets out the specific communication challenge posed by Ebola and why it was so difficult to get to grips with this in the early months of the outbreak. It thendocuments when the health communication response became more useful and explores what that tells us about effective media and commu...nication. Finally, it offers recommendations to ensure that media and communication are used to their full potential during other disease outbreaks and humanitarian crisis
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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 Kit is designed to be flexible and adaptable for preparedness and outbreak response in different contexts. The overall Cholera Kit is made up of a...n Investigation Kit, Laboratory materials, 3 Treatment Kits (community, periphery and central) and a Hardware Kit. The Treatment and Hardware Kits are each composed of individual modules. Each of the kits and modules can be ordered independently based on field need. To support orders, a Cholera Kit Calculation Tool was developed.
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/
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The preparedness strengthening team deployed to Ghana focused on specific objectives in order to assist the country in becoming as operationally prepared as possible to detect, investigate and report potential EVD cases effectively and safely and to mount an effective response to prevent a larger o...utbreak. To accomplish this goal, the team conducted “scoping” activities, stakeholder meetings, site visits and a “table-top” simulation exercise to determine what systems were in place and what aspects of preparedness could be strengthened.
It is organized in 10 components of the WHO consolidated checklist for EVD preparedness: 1) planning and coordination; 2) epidemiological and laboratory surveillance; 3) rapid response teams; 4) contact tracing; 5) points of entry; 6) laboratory; 7) case management; 8) infection prevention and control; 9) social mobilization and risk communication; 10) budget.
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The immediate objective of the country visit to Cameroon was to ensure that the country is as operationally ready as possible to effectively and safely detect, investigate and report potential Ebola virus disease cases and to mount an effective response that will prevent a larger outbreak. After te...chnical working group meetings, field visits, a “table-top” exercise and a hospital-based simulation exercises were undertaken.
Key strengths and weaknesses were identified, and the following areas for improvement were proposed to the Ministry of Health: coordination, surveillance, contact tracing, infection prevention and control, rapid response teams, case management, social mobilization, laboratory, points of entry, budget, logistics.
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Adaptation and roll-out of Epidemic Control for Volunteers’ (ECV) Toolkit and Training Manual in Myanmar
The ECV Toolkit ensures that volunteers have the proper training and essential communication tools (among other materials) before they are engaged in outbreak and epidemic response in thei...r communities. It is known that in the middle of an outbreak or epidemic, volunteers have limited time to remember everything they have learned during trainings, or to develop effective response – the ECV Toolkit is therefore designed as a set of practical, easy-to-follow tools to be easily picked up and followed.
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Screening areas, treatment centres and community facilities are part of the strategic priorities for Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) outbreak preparedness, readiness and response. The SARI Facilities training package has been developed to meet the operational needs emerging with the COVID-...19 pandemic.
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This guide is intended to support teams working directly with communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. It provides general guidance on community engagement during outbreak responses, including how to support an integrated response, as well as outbreak prevention and response.
This guidance will assist the transportation sector, including transport authorities, companies, independent or informal drivers, and passengers, in addressing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for different outbreak phases as defined in the Africa CDC Stepwise Response.
This guidance complements... the Africa CDC Guidance for Community Physical Distancing, which includes further details on how to engage communities, implement physical distancing, and support organisations, and the Africa CDC Guidance for Community Use of Face Masks.
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In March 2020 the IASC Reference Group on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support uniting 57 humanitarian organizations as member issued the Interim Briefing Note Addressing Mental Health and Psychosocial Aspects of COVID-19 Outbreak. This document has proven to be very useful in the response and has... till now been translated in 24 languages. It covers a set of recommended activities as well as messages for different target groups.
The current document is an annex to the Interim Briefing Note and is meant to support the MHPSS operational response within the various sectors of humanitarian work. Approaches and interventions to MHPSS are not confined to one sector, but need to be integrated within many existing sectors and clusters.This document contains a wealth of operational information and practical approaches that can be used for humanitarian programming in health, SGBV, community-based protection, nutrition, camp management and camp coordination.
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: interim guidance, 17 February 2021
This document provides interim guidance on the management of the blood supply in response to the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It emphasizes the importance of being prepared and responding quickly and outlines key actions and measures that... the blood services should take to mitigate the potential risk to the safety and sufficiency of the blood supplies during the pandemic.
It should be read in conjunction with WHO Guidance for National Blood Services on Protecting the Blood Supply During Infectious Disease Outbreaks, which provides general guidance on the development of national plans to respond to any emerging infectious threats to the sufficiency or safety of the blood supply.
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The objectives of pertussis surveillance are to:hmonitor disease burden and the impact of the pertussis vaccination programme, with a special focus on understanding the morbidity and mortality in children < 5 years of agehgenerate data to inform vaccine schedule and delivery strategy decisions to op...timize the impact of vaccinationhdetect and guide public health response to outbreaks of pertussis
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Representative, quality, timely and continuous genetic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 is critical to the COVID-19 outbreak response. This document provides practical guidance to Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) laboratories and other relevant national laboratories to move beyond... virus detection to genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive materials obtained from sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). It contains considerations on sample selection for sequencing, numbers of viruses to be sequenced, metadata and timeliness for sharing genetic sequence data (GSD) and opportunities for technical support.
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: interim guidance, 17 February 2021
This document provides interim guidance on the management of the blood supply in response to the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). It emphasizes the importance of being prepared and responding quickly and outlines key actions and measures that... the blood services should take to mitigate the potential risk to the safety and sufficiency of the blood supplies during the pandemic.
It should be read in conjunction with WHO Guidance for National Blood Services on Protecting the Blood Supply During Infectious Disease Outbreaks, which provides general guidance on the development of national plans to respond to any emerging infectious threats to the sufficiency or safety of the blood supply.
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COVID-19: occupational health and safety for health workers: interim guidance, Interim guidance 2 February 2021
Health workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to different hazards that put them at risk. Occupational hazards include exposure to SARS-C...oV-2 and other pathogens, violence, harassment, stigma, discrimination, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
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To guide One Health capacity building efforts in the Republic of Guinea in the wake of the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, we sought to identify and assess the existing systems and structures for zoonotic disease detection and control. We partnered with the government ministries resp...onsible for human, animal, and environmental health to identify a list of zoonotic diseases – rabies, anthrax, brucellosis, viral hemorrhagic fevers, trypanosomiasis and highly pathogenic avian influenza – as the country's top priorities. We used each priority disease as a case study to identify existing processes for prevention, surveillance, diagnosis, laboratory confirmation, reporting and response across the three ministries. Results were used to produce disease-specific systems “maps” emphasizing linkages across the systems, as well as opportunities for improvement. We identified brucellosis as a particularly neglected condition. Past efforts to build avian influenza capabilities, which had degraded substantially in less than a decade, highlighted the challenge of sustainability. We observed a keen interest across sectors to reinvigorate national rabies control, and given the regional and global support for One Health approaches to rabies elimination, rabies could serve as an ideal disease to test incipient One Health coordination mechanisms and procedures. Overall, we identified five major categories of gaps and challenges: (1) Coordination; (2) Training; (3) Infrastructure; (4) Public Awareness; and (5) Research. We developed and prioritized recommendations to address the gaps, estimated the level of resource investment needed, and estimated a timeline for implementation. These prioritized recommendations can be used by the Government of Guinea to plan strategically for future One Health efforts, ideally under the auspices of the national One Health Platform. This work demonstrates an effective methodology for mapping systems and structures for zoonotic diseases, and the benefit of conducting a baseline review of systemic capabilities prior to embarking on capacity building efforts.
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Bioethics 519 (online) doi:10.1111/bioe.12145 Volume 29 Number 8 2015 pp. 488–596;
Pandemic plans recommend phases of response to an emergent infectious disease (EID) outbreak, and are primarily aimed at preventing and mitigating human-to-human transmission. These plans carry presumptive weight ...and are increasingly being operationalized at the national, regional and international level with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO). The conventional focus of pandemic preparedness for EIDs of zoonotic origin has been on public health and human welfare. However, thisfocus on human populations has resulted in strategically important disciplinary silos. As the risks of zoonotic diseases have implications that reach across many domains outside traditional public health, including anthropological, environmental, and veterinary fora, a more inclusive ecological perspective is paramount for an effective response to future outbreaks.
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For public health emergencies, risk communication includes the range of communication capacities required through the preparedness, response and recovery phases of a serious public health event to encourage informed decision making, positive behaviour change and the maintenance of trust.
Risk commu...nication used to be viewed primarily as the dissemination of information to the public about health risks and events, such as outbreaks of disease and instructions on how to change behaviour to mitigate those risks. Thinking on this has now evolved dramatically as social science evidence and new communication and media technologies and practices have evolved in the 21st century.
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The strengthened plan aims to achieve and sustain a polio-free world through a focus on implementation and accountability. Emphasis will be on cutting outbreak response times; increasing vaccine demand; transforming campaign effectiveness; working systematically through integration; increasing acce...ss in inaccessible areas; transitioning towards government ownership; and improving decision-making and accountability.
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The strengthened plan aims to achieve and sustain a polio-free world through a focus on implementation and accountability. Emphasis will be on cutting outbreak response times; increasing vaccine demand; transforming campaign effectiveness; working systematically through integration; increasing acce...ss in inaccessible areas; transitioning towards government ownership; and improving decision-making and accountability.
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