Plague: Knowledge resources for responders (English/Malagasy)

Course information

La version française de ce cours est disponible sur : https://openwho.org/courses/ressources-connaissances-peste

Overview: This course aims to provide decision-makers and frontline responders with an overview of plague and strategies of how to build trust and engage communities during an outbreak. These resources can be used as refreshers for experienced personnel or as an introduction to the topic for everyone else. Most of the materials are available in English and French, and can be downloaded for offline use. Slides for the presentation on building trust and engaging communities during a plague outbreak are also available in Malagasy.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, participants should be able to understand:

• the fundamental principles of plague; and
• strategies of how to build trust and engage communities during an outbreak.

Course duration: Approximately 2 hour.

Certificates: A Confirmation of Participation is available to participants who complete at least 80% of the course materials.

Course contents

• Introduction to Plague:

  In this short video lecture, Dr Eric Bertherat explains the basic principles of plague and ways to protect yourself and others. It is intended for personnel responding to plague outbreaks in complex emergencies or in settings where the basic environmental infrastructures have been damaged or destroyed. By the end of this lecture, you should be able to: describe the transmission cycle of the disease, explain the difference between bubonic plague and pneumonic plague, and describe the public health concerns.

• Building Trust and engaging communities for the plague outbreak (English/Malagasy):

  This presentation provides training in risk communication and community engagement for frontline health workers and volunteers. The slides can be downloaded and reviewed at your own pace. By the end of this presentation, you should be able to: describe the importance of frontline works in building community trust in plague outbreak response, identify priority actions for improving the relationship between frontline workers and communities, and list actions frontline workers can take to support communities in adapting behaviors that contribute to stopping the spread of the outbreak.