Global & Disaster Medicine

Archive for the ‘Pandemic’ Category

Public Health Emergency Law Online Training

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/trainings/ph-emergencylaw.html?deliveryName=USCDC_289-DM18083

Management of public health emergencies requires effective use of legal authorities. In these incidents, public health and emergency management responses must be coordinated under a complex set of federal, state, tribal, and local laws. CDC’s Public Health Emergency Law course prepares state, tribal, local, and territorial practitioners to make informed legal decisions related to emergency preparedness and response activities in their jurisdictions.

PHEL consists of three competency-based units and covers legal issues to consider before, during, and after public health emergencies. Each interactive unit takes about 40 minutes to complete.

Public Health Emergency Law Online Trainingexternal icon

Unit 1—Introduction to Emergency Management Systems Preparedness and Response
Covers the legal underpinnings of emergency management systems
Unit 2—Emergency Powers: Protection of Persons, Volunteers, and Responders
Describes legal considerations for personnel responding to emergencies
Unit 3—Emergency Powers: Management and Protection of Property and Supplies
Examines considerations surrounding materials and property during public health emergencies

Disclaimer: These course materials are for instructional use only and are not intended as a substitute for professional legal or other advice. While every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of these materials, the legal authorities and requirements may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Always seek the advice of an attorney or other qualified professional with any questions you may have regarding a legal matter. The contents of these presentations have not been formally disseminated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should not be construed to represent any agency determination or policy.

Posted in CDC, Education, Pandemic| Comments Off

WHO course: Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

https://openwho.org/courses/introduction-to-ncov

Course information

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 1 hour.

Certificates: No certificate available at this time.

Attention:

WHO teams are working on additional modules which will be uploaded in the coming days.
You will be notified when new modules and videos are uploaded. Currently, the materials are offered as 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.

Course contents

Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: Introduction:

This brief introduction provides an overview of emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV.
Module A: Introduction to Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV:

Overall learning objective: To be able to explain why an emerging respiratory virus, including nCoV are a global threat to human health
Module B: Detecting Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: 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 nCoV

Posted in 2019 Novel Coronavirus, Communicable diseases, Education, Pandemic, WHO| Comments Off

Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN)

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

https://www.weforum.org/projects/pandemic-supply-chain-network-pscn

Partners will build a pandemic-ready supply chain network, the Pandemic Supply Chain Network (PSCN), through global public-private collaboration that connects various organizations involved in an emergency supply chain operations to ensure timely delivery of critical health supplies to the people who need it most.

PSCN aims to:

Contribute to public sector, industry, and civil society outreach and consultation, and as such, provide input into WHO’s development of the disease commodity packages.

Operationalise a mechanism/multistakeholder platform to support coordination and visibility into production, availability, and strategic allocation of strategic commodities, services, and other critical resources essential to managing large outbreaks of international concern.

PANDEMIC SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK

The new Pandemic Supply Chain Network, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and the World Economic Forum, has begun convening calls with 350 private sector organizations and 10 multilateral organizations to assess the market capacity and risk to global personal protection equipment production. The results of the assessment are expected Feb. 5.

Posted in 2019 Novel Coronavirus, Pandemic| Comments Off

Take-aways from Event 201

Friday, January 24th, 2020

“The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted Event 201, a high-level pandemic exercise on October 18, 2019, in New York, NY. The exercise illustrated areas where public/private partnerships will be necessary during the response to a severe pandemic in order to diminish large-scale economic and societal consequences” (CHS). The exercise included many diverse organizations and agencies that convened to elaborate on their plans for a pandemic level outbreak. The organizations included crossed paths from public, private, non-profit and more. The key recommendations and takeaways can be found below, with the link provided in the citation.

· Governments, international organizations, and businesses should plan now for how essential corporate capabilities will be utilized during a large-scale pandemic.

· Industry, national governments, and international organizations should work together to enhance internationally held stockpiles of medical countermeasures (MCMs) to enable rapid and equitable distribution during a severe pandemic.

· Countries, international organizations, and global transportation companies should work together to maintain travel and trade during severe pandemics. Travel and trade are essential to the global economy as well as to national and even local economies, and they should be maintained even in the face of a pandemic.

· Governments should provide more resources and support for the development and surge manufacturing of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics that will be needed during a severe pandemic.

· Global business should recognize the economic burden of pandemics and fight for stronger preparedness.

· International organizations should prioritize reducing economic impacts of epidemics and pandemics.

· Governments and the private sector should assign a greater priority to developing methods to combat mis- and disinformation prior to the next pandemic response. (CHS)

Action Steps:

1. Countries with national supplies or domestic manufacturing capabilities should commit to donating some supply/product to this virtual stockpile. Countries should support this effort through the provision of additional funding.

2. Ministries of Health and other government agencies should work together now with international airlines and global shipping companies to develop realistic response scenarios and start a contingency planning process with the goal of mitigating economic damage by maintaining key travel and trade routes during a large-scale pandemic.

3. Trusted, influential private-sector employers should create the capacity to readily and reliably augment public messaging, manage rumors and misinformation, and amplify credible information to support emergency public communications. (CHS)

Posted in Drills/exercises, Pandemic| Comments Off