The Laboratory of Technological Innovation in Health at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (LAIS / UFRN), in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), offers a specific extension course with information about COVID-19, the new coronavirus. The module is now available on the AVASUS platform, a virtual learning environment for SUS, developed by LAIS and the Ministry of Health. The training aims to serve public health professionals, incident managers and people who work for international organizations and NGOs on the main characteristics disease and how to cope with it.

The course has a total of four hours and is divided into four units. The entire module is self-instructional, that is, it is completely mediated by technology.

According to Professor Ricardo Valentim, LAIS coordinator, the course aims to enable professionals to describe the fundamental principles of emerging respiratory viruses and how to respond effectively to an outbreak after the training is completed. “This is a moment where it is essential to disseminate quality information. Therefore, having a training like this, which has the endorsement of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), is extremely important. It is a course with simple language. and easy to understand for the general public “, he said.

Although focused on health professionals, the course is open to the public and can be done by anyone.

For more information, the link to access the course on the platform is available below: http://bit.ly/CursoCoronavirus

Pandemic
This Wednesday (11), the World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Pandemic situations arise when the disease is already spread on several continents, with sustained transmission (when an infected patient who has not been in one of the countries transmits the disease to another who has also not traveled outside his region of origin) among the people. According to the agency, the trend is that the number of infected people, as well as the number of deaths due to infection, will increase in the coming days.

Also according to the WHO, there are 118 thousand cases worldwide, in 114 countries, with a total number of 4,291 people until this Wednesday (11). In Brazil, there are 37 confirmed cases, 876 suspected and 1,042 thousand cases discarded. In a press conference this Wednesday afternoon, the Minister of Health, Henrique Mandetta, declared that, for now, nothing changes in Brazil with the declaration of a pandemic, since the country has already adopted protocols similar to those in countries where there was already sustained transmission .