Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 (OpenWHO)

Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 (OpenWHO)

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.

La version française de ce cours est disponible sur : https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-au-ncov
The Simplified Chinese version of the course is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov-ZH
La versión en español de este curso está disponible aquí : https://openwho.org/courses/introduccion-al-ncov
A versão em português do Brasil deste curso encontra-se disponível aqui: https://openwho.org/courses/introducao-ao-ncov
The Arabic version of this course is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-COVID-19-AR
Версию этого курса на русском языке найти можно по этой ссылке: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-COVID-19-RU
Bu kursun Türkçe versiyonuna buradan ulaşabilirisiniz: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-COVID-19-TR
The Persian version of this course is available here: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-COVID-19-FA
Srpska verzija ovog kursa je dostupna ovde: https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-COVID-19-SR

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.

Learning objective:Describe the fundamental principles of emerging respiratory viruses and how to effectively respond to an outbreak.

Course duration: Approximately 3 hours.
Certificates: No certificate available at this time.
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.

Attention:
You will be notified when new videos are uploaded. Currently, the materials are offered as videos and slide decks.
The course will offer a certificate in the future, after all of the modules have been published and a quiz has been added to each module.
The course materials are currently being translated into other languages.

Course contents

Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: Introduction:
This brief introduction provides an overview of emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.

Module A: Introduction to Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19:
Overall learning objective: To be able to explain why a emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, are a global threat to human health

Module B: Detecting Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: Surveillance and Laboratory investigation:
Overall learning objective: To describe how to detect and assess an emerging respiratory virus outbreak

Module C: Risk Communication and Community Engagement:
Overall learning objective: To describe what strategies should be used to communicate risk and engage communities to detect, prevent and respond to COVID-19

Module D: Preventing and Responding to an emerging respiratory virus, including COVID-19:
Overall learning objective: To describe strategies for preventing and controlling emerging respiratory pathogens, including coronavirus outbreaks.

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