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Pandemics: Emergence, Spread and Response

Online Short Course  London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Gain the knowledge and skills that are critical to working in the field of pandemics. This master’s level online course is developed by the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) and offers a focused perspective and approach to learning about pandemics. The course will outline the specific drivers, multi-disciplinary actors and response measures, and facilitate the critical appraisal of pandemic preparedness, response and research in different contexts. This course is currently closed but you can register interest here

Blog: New briefing paper flags priority research questions to improve cleaning practices in resource-limited hospital settings

 8th June 2023

This briefing paper by the CLEAN research group, first convened in mid-2022 as part of a UK-PHRST project, sets out 12 priority research questions to improve cleaning practices in resource-limited healthcare settings and help prevent infections and antimicrobial resistance among staff and patients. The research questions span cleaning standards, health system-related questions, behaviour change and innovation.

It also highlights the challenges facing resource-limited settings and factors that need to be considered to support the implementation of tailored and effective cleaning practices. For example, the experts recommend viewing cleaners as a key part of health systems and including them in the design of new hospital cleaning programmes. Read more about this briefing paper and post your comments.

Blog: Collaborative supervision of a healthcare worker study in Uganda

10th August 2021

Kagando Mission Hospital in Uganda, the Medical Research Council (MRC)-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) and the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) is investigating the prevalence of exposure to viral hemorrhagic fever viruses (VHF viruses) and SARS-CoV-2 in health care workers and surrounding communities. In this blog, the challenges of implementing research in the context of a pandemic are discussed, as well as how they were overcome through a strong collaborative research ethos. Read more about this study and post your comments.

Framework for the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in response to disease outbreaks

This framework has been developed to share learning from the UK-PHRST's development of a massive open online course (MOOC) entitled “COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus”. It details a stepwise approach to the development and delivery of a MOOC in the context of a disease outbreak and includes links to useful tools and templates.

The Epidemiologist R Handbook

This handbook strives to: serve as a quick R code reference manual; provide task-centered examples addressing common epidemiological problems; assist epidemiologists transitioning to R; and be accessible in settings with low internet-connectivity via an offline versionThis handbook is produced by a collaboration of epidemiologists from around the world drawing upon experience with organizations including local, state, provincial, and national health agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO), Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors without Borders (MSF), hospital systems, and academic institutions.