Disease Forecasting during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Have We Learned from Previous Outbreaks?

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Through forecasting the disease burden and comparing intervention strategies, modelling has been a key part of the public policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments across the world have justified implementing policies based on science, data, and information gleaned from these models. However, as we have learned through previous outbreaks, the science of modelling/forecasting an epidemic can be uncertain. Policies adopted by governments due to disease forecasting will have wide-ranging consequences—not only on the epidemic….

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Will Lessons from Cholera in Haiti Be Applied to COVID-19?

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In recent weeks, the United Nations Department of Peace Operations announced a series of protocol changes to reduce the risk that peacekeepers will introduce COVID-19 into vulnerable countries. As the introduction of cholera to Haiti in 2010 by UN peacekeepers demonstrates, such preventative measures are critical. Yet there is cause for concern that the lessons from cholera in Haiti have not translated into adequate action to protect peacekeeping host communities from the preventable transmission of…

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COVID-19 in fragile settings: Ensuring a conflict-sensitive response

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Violent conflict often exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases, as seen in the recent resurgence of polio in Syria, cholera outbreaks in the conflict zones in Yemen, and the persistence of Ebola in insecure eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Between 2009 and 2017, in fact, there were 364 disease outbreaks in 108 refugee camps. Fragility and conflict reverse hard-won development gains and stunt opportunities for children, youth, and the poorest people….

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Resources for Community Engagement during Covid-19

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Community engagement is vital during the Coronavirus pandemic. Oxfam’s experience of working humanitarian contexts, and in the recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks, has shown that the best way to respond is to build trust in communities and services, understand community perspectives and share information, and work with communities to determine how to keep people safe. This set of three resources captures good practice for community engagement during epidemics in a guidance note, a helpful checklist…

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Governance Implicationsof Epidemic Disease in Africa: Updating the Agenda for COVID-19

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African countries have much experience with epidemics of communicable diseases. Nonetheless, certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic are new; for example its impacts on the global economy, and the extreme restrictions on social interaction that are recommended as mitigation measures. Other aspects of the pandemic are familiar; for example high levels of illness that overwhelm limited health care capacity, a spike in mortality, and the conjuncture of these two elements with a severe economic downturn.This…

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From Zika to COVID-19: Can we learn lessons across pandemics?

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In this blog post, Ildo Lautharte Junior and Imran Rasul show that evidence gathered during the course of the Zika outbreak in the Americas in 2015 provides important lessons for policymakers in today’s COVID-19 pandemi, especially with regard to public health and household responses.   Read more

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Assessing key considerations for burial practices, death and mourning in epidemics

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This Practical Approaches brief highlights key considerations for rapidly appraising burial/funerary practices and beliefs around death/dying during an epidemic. It provides guidance on the relevant social science knowledge required to adapt epidemic preparedness and response to the local context. By using this tool, an overview of local knowledge, meaning and practice will be gained, which can help inform programming related to death and burial.   Download

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Four Lessons from Outbreaks in Africa for the Age of Coronavirus

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As the coronavirus pandemic continues and new behavioral practices—from social distancing to avoiding handshakes and hugs—become expected norms overnight, there are crucial policy lessons to be learned from struggles against previous outbreaks of disease in Africa. Despite widespread poverty, weak infrastructure, and relatively few health professionals, there is an encouraging, long record of African countries—often with significant international assistance and cooperation—eventually managing to overcome dire health challenges. For non-African countries already facing large numbers of…

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Epidemics, pandemics and humanitarian challenges: Lessons from a number of health crises

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For more than 20 years, Groupe URD has been evaluating humanitarian response and crisis management, which almost always has a ‘health’ component. In all of these contexts, from Afghanistan to Colombia, by way of the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, they have observed how health systems react to crises, whether it be in terms of war and disaster medicine, regular public health systems, or the management of major health crises, such as cholera and…

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ePROTECT Respiratory Infections

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All personnel responding to outbreaks of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) need to have the basic knowledge and skills to mount an effective response. They need to understand what ARIs are, how they are transmitted, how to assess the risk of infection and to understand basic hygiene measures to protect themselves. This learning package consists of 4 modules with videos and downloadable presentations. Visit site

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