Introduction to COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was identified in 2019 in Wuhan, China. This is a new coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans.
This course provides a general introduction to COVID-19 and emerging respiratory viruses and is intended for public health professionals, incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.
As the official disease name was established after material creation, any mention of nCoV refers to COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus.
Overview:
This course provides a general introduction to emerging respiratory viruses, including novel coronaviruses. By the end of this course, you should be able to describe:
- The nature of emerging respiratory viruses, how to detect and assess an outbreak, strategies for preventing and controlling outbreaks due to novel respiratory viruses;
- What strategies should be used to communicate risk and engage communities to detect, prevent and respond to the emergence of a novel respiratory virus.
There are resources attached to each module to help you dive further into this topic.
Institution:
Free online courses from World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency’s governing structure and principles, states its main objective as “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with six semi-autonomous regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
Created in 1948 as part of the United Nations, the WHO has a broad mandate to guide and coordinate international health policy. Its primary activities include developing partnerships with other global health initiatives, conducting research, setting norms, providing technical support, and monitoring health trends around the world. Over the decades, the WHO’s remit has expanded from its original focus on women’s and children’s health, nutrition, sanitation, and fighting malaria and tuberculosis.
Today, the WHO monitors and coordinates activities concerning many health-related issues, including genetically modified foods, climate change, tobacco and drug use, and road safety. The WHO is also an arbiter of norms and best practices. Since 1977, the organization has maintained a list of essential medicines it encourages hospitals to stock. The WHO has since made a similar list of diagnostic tests, and it has plans to add devices, such as X-ray and ultrasound machines.
Learning objective:
Describe the fundamental principles of emerging respiratory viruses and how to effectively respond to an outbreak.
Course duration:
Approximately 3 hours.
Certificates:
A Record of Achievement certificate will be available to participants who score at least 80% of the total points available across all of the quizzes.
As the official disease name was established after material creation, any mention of nCoV refers to COVID-19, the infectious disease caused by the most recently discovered coronavirus.
Course contents
Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: Introduction:
This brief introduction provides an overview of emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.
Module 1: Introduction to Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: explain how respiratory viruses emerge and why they are a global threat to human health
Module 2: Detecting Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: Surveillance:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe how to detect and assess an emerging respiratory virus outbreak.
Module 3: Detecting Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: Laboratory Investigations:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe different types of sampling needed and the type of laboratory investigations used to confirm cases of COVID-19.
Module 4: Risk Communication:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe key risk communication concerns for emerging respiratory viruses; to list at leat three barriers for effective uptake of health advise; and identify some key interventions for operationalizing risk communication during an outbreak or an event.
Module 5 : Community Engagement:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe at least three reasons why responders need to engage communities during an outbreak; list challenges faced in community engagement; and describe approaches for effective community engagement in detecting, preventing and responding to an outbreak.
Module 6: Preventing and Responding to an emerging respiratory virus, including COVID-19:
By the end of this module, you should be able to: describe the principles of preventing infection in the community and in health care settings.
Introduction to COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control available in Arabic and English:
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