Digitizing basic occupational health and safety knowledge for ebola virus disease missions – Reaching frontline responders through an online course

Abstract

This paper investigates the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ePROTECT course, an occupational health and safety online briefing for Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola) that has become a key resource for responders battling Ebola on the frontline across different professional roles in various organizations, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its neighbouring countries. It is a basis of the WHO’s duty of care and has been made mandatory for its own personnel before deploying into Ebola missions. This study looks at the use case of the course. User patterns, locations, backgrounds and affiliations were analyzed. Additionally, a user survey was sent to all active course users to understand their motivation for taking the course. Significant user figures beyond WHO staff suggest the online course is a critical resource, transferring life-saving knowledge to responders at the Ebola frontline much beyond WHO. United Nations personnel make up the biggest user group. Completion rate in the English course is at a very high level; 90.8% of users completed the course. According to the user survey, the DRC and neighboring countries represent 2 in 3 of all course participants, suggesting the course is used in countries of active outbreak or immediate vicinity and majority of the users had worked in the Ebola themselves. Compulsory course requirement and keenness to gain more knowledge on the disease were the main motivations for course enrolment.