ECDC Virtual Academy (EVA)

The aim of this course is to introduce you to the concept of recovery following infectious disease outbreaks and provide guidance on how to implement recovery in an organisation or health system to improve the response to future outbreaks. The self-paced e-learning consists of interactive elements, a case scenario and integrated quizzes.

Duration: Approximately 60 minutes.

Audience: Individuals who are involved with or have interest in the process of preparedness planning in their organisation or health system, including infectious diseases emergency planners (experts involved in the creation/revision of processes and procedures for infectious diseases emergency response). 

Objectives:  After completing this course, you will be able to: 

Participation: This training is open for self-enrolment (it is open for all).

The EU Initiative on Health Security aims to strengthen partner countries’ capacities to assess, detect, respond and prevent threats from communicable diseases, as well as enhance regional cooperation. 

This training on climate change and infectious disease  is part of the initiative’s efforts to address preconditions for efficient public health systems.  The impacts of climate change on infectious disease transmission are increasingly well documented. From a One Health perspective, this training will focus on assessing the current knowledge on the topic and identifying good practices for climate change adaptation oriented around anticipating and responding to the direct and indirect threats from climate change.

Dates and duration: TBD (Q2; 2024)

Audience: The training is designed for senior professionals and policy-advisors working in public health from the EU Southern ENP partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine1, and Tunisia), food safety, animal health, and environmental authorities. 1 This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.

Objectives: After completing this training, participants should be able to: 

• Communicate the latest scientific knowledge surrounding climate change and infectious disease as it pertains to Southern Neighbourhood Policy countries
• Identify and prioritise the direct and indirect threats that climate change poses to the control of infectious disease
• Discuss regional preparedness strategies for augmenting threat anticipation, early warning, and response in relation to climate change and infectious disease

Participation: This training is not open for self-enrolment. Participation is through invitation only.

 This course aims to outline the preparedness cycle as applied to infectious diseases. It intends to present, in a light and engaging manner, the various areas of work of the preparedness cycle at large and explain how they relate to one another. Each work area is further described, providing access to useful tools and asking a few questions along the way to ensure learners' understanding.

Duration: 30 min.

Audience: This course is intended for people who need to interact with infectious diseases preparedness teams, as well as for those who have a basic understanding of what preparedness is and wish to learn more, such as health professionals, policy-makers, communicators, academics, and local community leaders, among others.

Objectives: On completing the course, participants will be able to:

• Define what preparedness is, and its related concepts;
• ​Identify the different stakeholders involved in preparedness; and
• Identify assessment tools to facilitate preparedness.

Participation: This course is open for public enrolment.

This Case study aims at local community outbreak response teams. 

It's designed to be delivered face-to-face to a group of 4-14 individuals, including:

• employees of the local administration and municipal public health service;
• employers of foreign temporary workers;
• employees of other municipal institutions, such as social services, or NGOs. 

This case study presented by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was developed with contribution of experts from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

👥 Audience: Emergency responders in various sectors in member states who may find themselves responding to a deliberate event. This includes (Public) health workers active on the scene, the staff in emergency health facilities, police, fire brigade, dispatch officers, secondary responders, and forensic experts. This awareness course may also be helpful for policymakers and regulators dealing with preparedness and response to bioterrorism. 

🎯 Objectives: This course aims to ensure that all participants recognize possible deliberate events with chemical or biological agents and know the different response types this will require compared to other emergencies.

 Photo credits: WHO

👥 Audience: This course is intended for incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.

🎯 Objectives: By the end of this course, you should be able to describe: the nature of the virus, the disease it causes, its history, and why it is a threat to human health; how to detect and assess a MERS outbreak; strategies for preventing and controlling MERS outbreaks; and what strategies should be used to communicate risk and engage communities to detect, prevent and respond to MERS. 

 Photo credits: WHO