Developing digital learning to help reduce laboratory inequalities: a viral haemorrhagic fever case study

Abstract

Countries with the highest potential exposure to viral haemorrhagic fever viruses are also those with low expenditure on health services, limiting the capacity for surveillance and detection of these viruses, and effective treatment and outbreak containment. The COVID-19 pandemic further limited travel and in-person collaborative training opportunities for researchers, laboratory and public health professionals. Digital learning offers the prospect of addressing some of the shortfall in training needs. In this short report, we describe our experiences in the development of effective laboratory training tools using digital learning methods. We describe the teaching methodology, list barriers to successful implementation and offer some potential solutions.