Early on in the pandemic, Project ECHO started supporting the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) disseminating information to healthcare providers and public health officials. Several other programs hosted by WHO AFRO have launched addressing COVID-19 and HIV related topics in the context of the pandemic. Here is an overview of the various programs.
Hosted by WHO AFRO
These webinars have been ongoing since April 2020, addressing a wide variety of COVID-19 related topics and vary in frequency.
Resources from the webinars are accessible from the Afro COVID-19 Response page under Past Sessions.
On July 23, 2020, the WHO AFRO ECHO initiative launched with the goal to establish a number of virtual communities of practice (VCOPs) aimed at strengthening health services in networks of all 47 member states of the region, and achieving Universal Health Coverage. The sessions are being used to disseminate WHO policy, guidelines and standards, and for sharing best practices and mentoring.
Currently there are several programs under this initiative.
This teleECHO program provides an introduction and overview of guidelines for HIV prevention through voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMV) as part of a combination of prevention strategies in high-burden settings.
Go to Preventing HIV through VMMC
This teleECHO program is designed to orient participants to disseminating proficiency testing (PT) results and identifying route course analysis. It is a priority to advance the viral-load testing cascade for early infant diagnosis (EID), and strengthen the underlying laboratory systems.
Go to HIV Viral-Load Testing and EID in the Context of COVID-19
This teleECHO program will disseminate policy briefs, and highlight WHO programmatic implementations while addressing the associated operational challenges and potential solutions.
Go to WHO HIV Pediatrics and Adolescent Updates
This teleECHO program is intended to provide a platform for disseminating training in the area of case management of COVID-19, and to establish a free platfom for African clinicians to share their research, knowledge, and practices in the management of COVID-19.
Go to WHO AFRO Case Management Series
This teleECHO program is a collaboration by the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator’s Country Readiness and Delivery (CRD) work stream, Project ECHO, Boost, TechNet-21, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Project. Its focus is to facilitate the sharing of guidance, tools, and other resources to support effective introduction and administration of COVID-19 vaccines on a global scale.
Go to WHO COVID-19 Vaccination: Building Global Capacity
The Laboratory System Strengthening Community of Practice Lab Virtual Community of Practice (Lab vCOP) aims to strengthen and transform laboratory services in the WHO Africa Region.
Go to WHO AFRO vCOP for Laboratory System Strengthening in the Context of COVID-19
This teleECHO program is the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) 3rd edition teleECHO, intended to scale up in the districts. It includes implementation of an IDSR virtual community of practice (VCOP) to support the IDSR programs in all 47 WHO AFRO countries.