Newly Available Online Courses on OpenWHO: Empowering Healthcare Professionals in Response to Public Health Challenges; September 2, 2024
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Introduction
In an ever-evolving global health landscape, staying updated with the latest knowledge and skills is crucial for healthcare professionals. OpenWHO, the World Health Organization’s platform for free online courses, continues to expand its offerings to meet the needs of health workers worldwide. Whether addressing emerging diseases like mpox or enhancing preparedness for more familiar threats like yellow fever, these courses are designed to equip professionals with the tools and information they need to effectively respond to public health emergencies.
Available New Courses
1. Mpox Learning Materials: A Critical Resource for Africa
As the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries face a significant upsurge in mpox cases, the WHO has declared it a public health emergency of international concern. To support the response, OpenWHO offers several courses tailored to different levels of expertise and available in multiple languages. These include:
- Mpox and the 2022-2023 Global Outbreak: This course provides an overview of the disease, emphasizing new insights gained from the recent global outbreak. It is accessible to both health workers and the general public in multiple languages, including English, French, and Spanish.
- Mpox: Introductory Course for African Outbreak Contexts: Designed for health personnel responsible for mpox prevention and control, this course is offered in languages such as Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese.
- Mpox: Epidemiology, Preparedness, and Response for African Outbreak Contexts: Aimed at public health officers, this course delves deeper into the epidemiology, transmission, clinical presentation, diagnostics, and treatment of mpox.
2. New Courses for Yellow Fever Outbreak Response
In response to the ongoing threat of yellow fever, OpenWHO has introduced two new courses available in both English and French:
- Fundamentals of Yellow Fever Disease, Surveillance, and Laboratory Diagnosis: This course provides a comprehensive overview, from early detection to lab diagnostics, aimed at improving field reporting and data management.
- Investigation and Management of Yellow Fever Outbreaks: This course guides participants through the steps necessary to investigate and manage yellow fever outbreaks effectively, including accessing vaccines from global stockpiles and monitoring intervention outcomes.
Both courses are designed to enhance the capacity of field-level clinicians, surveillance personnel, and public health practitioners to respond effectively to yellow fever outbreaks.
3. Expanding Knowledge Across Languages and Topics
OpenWHO has achieved a significant milestone by offering courses in 75 languages, making public health education more accessible than ever. Recently, new languages such as Maraba, Makonde, and Romanian have been added to the platform. Additionally, OpenWHO continues to expand its course offerings in various areas of public health, including a newly launched course series on tuberculosis (TB) community-based services. This series includes modules on awareness raising, risk communication, and psychological counseling, among other topics.
4. Enhancing Preparedness for Health Emergencies
In addition to disease-specific courses, OpenWHO has launched several new courses aimed at improving general preparedness for health emergencies:
- Introduction to WHO’s Emergency Response Framework (ERF): This course offers an overview of WHO’s emergency management approach, guiding learners through a fictional outbreak scenario.
- Training of Trainers on Digital Learning for Health Emergencies: This course provides essential skills for facilitating interactive digital learning, a critical need in today’s health emergency landscape.
- Use of Epidemic Intelligence Systems: Focused on event-based surveillance, this course aims to strengthen epidemic intelligence capacities among Member States.
More New Courses
You can read this blog post by OpenWHO to find out more new online courses available on the platform.
How to Enroll
You can use the following links to enroll to the specific course of your need in English
- Mpox and the 2022-2023 global outbreak: https://openwho.org/courses/mpox-global-outbreak-2023
- Mpox: Introductory course for African outbreak contexts: https://openwho.org/courses/monkeypox-introduction
- Mpox: Epidemiology, preparedness and response for African outbreak contexts: https://openwho.org/courses/monkeypox-intermediate
- Fundamentals of Yellow Fever Disease, Surveillance, and Laboratory Diagnosis: https://openwho.org/courses/yellow-fever-fundamentals
- Investigation and Management of Yellow Fever Outbreaks: https://openwho.org/courses/yellow-fever-outbreak
- Introduction to WHO’s Emergency Response Framework (ERF): https://openwho.org/courses/ERF
- Training of Trainers on Digital Learning for Health Emergencies: https://openwho.org/courses/tot-digital-learning-health-emergencies
- Use of Epidemic Intelligence systems with a particular focus on event-based surveillance for pandemic preparedness: https://openwho.org/courses/epidemic-intelligence
For more online courses and detailed information, visit OpenWHO.org.
