Government-run programme for community management of childhood illness has been established in 2009 (PCIME-Communautaire). Community volunteers/community relays (called relais communautaires) identified by their peers and in charge of health of children.

CHWs received a half-day training on viral haemorrhagic. These trainings were conducted by health workers from their respective health areas. The study aimed to understand knowledge and attitudes of the CHWs.

The mean age of CHWs was 38.7 years; 77% male and 23% female and 50% had primary education, while another 50% had secondary education.

Primary occupation of CHWs was 60.3% cultivators, 22.4% resellers and 17.3% craftsmen.

CHWs are trained in the home treatment of coughs, diarrhoea and malaria in children under 5 years of age and in the promotion of health in their communities. They also conduct rapid diagnostic tests of malaria.

Study was done as part of a new surveillance initiative to monitor effects of the Ebola epidemic on health services

The initiative was a collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone, Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the non-governmental organisation CapaCare.

Community health officers enrolled in a surgical task-shifting programme that existed previously were involved in the study. This is a collaborative initiative with similar arrangement.

CHWs used as data collectors in retrospective survey to understand indirect effects on health facility function during the pandemic.

CHWs were trained in data collection for 2 days and received a tablet with SIM card to allow direct data entering.

No other details were provided.

The study was done to measure the impact of the outbreak on population health and health systems with support for the government and through a government run-programme.

HCWs, community workers and social mobilisers were responsible for immunisation and outreach services.

The CHWs were recruited for Ebola-related activities and were not paid for this. CHWs also provided community TB DOTS services.

CHWs were voluntary workforce.

District Health Management Teams

supervised the HCWs.

HCWs were trained in Ebola treatment.

Village animal health worker (VAHWs) and Village human health worker (VHHWs) performed:

• Targeted community surveillance activities such as regular household visits, communicating with animal and human drug suppliers, liaising with poultry and feed sellers at marketplaces, village education and training, follow-up of rumours and poultry vaccination campaigns.

• IEC activities related to case definition, reporting and response to animal and human drug suppliers; vaccination schedule and coverage with poultry and feed sellers at marketplaces; regarding correct hand washing and environmental decontamination skills to communities through village events such as farmers’ and women’s union meetings.

VAHWs and VHHWs were selected by commune authorities and received a 2–3 day training. Furthermore, ongoing training sessions were held every 6–12 months.

Does not specify any other details but its study reports a theme that VAHWs and VHHWs were happy to contribute to community welfare noting that the ‘workload is really big… allowance and salary is very low… there is the risk of disease transmission’ and that the ‘occupation is mainly based on love’.

CHW programme is designed and funded by Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone, and is responsible for the recruitment of the CHWs.

CHWs are adult volunteers, with the majority literate in English. They are provided a 10-day training course that covers specific clinical duties including symptom-directed screening for malaria, including performing RDTs for malaria; eliciting a history from caregivers; performing basic examinations, such as recording respiratory count; and providing non-injectable treatment for malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. CHWs are supervised by PHU staff.

CHW activities to support outbreak management was part of the national response and included social mobilisation, contact tracing and community-based surveillance for EVD.

Midoutbreak, CHWs were asked refrain from conducting finger-prick blood tests for rapid malaria diagnostics and basic physical examinations and presumptive treatment was started.

CHWs follow a performance-based remuneration system, and while exact details are not provided, it is mentioned that remuneration returned to preoutbreak stipends (equivalent of US$2/month) for transport refund suggesting that top-ups were provided.

CHW roles similar to Vandi et al.

Context expected to be similar to Vandi et al.

Mobile Training and Support programme was funded by Ministry to provide refresher trainings on vaccinations and disease surveillance to CHWs in remote locations and with a special focus on EVD.

CHW roles similar to Vandi et al.

An interactive voice response technology was used to deliver audio-based refresher trainings to supplement classroom training and the study aimed to assess the training modality.

The CHWs were trained by voice recorded content in local languages on the topics of vaccines and (Ebola) disease surveillance and outbreak response.

The basis of all training content was the Ministry curriculum for CHWs.

Context expected to be similar to Vandi et al.

The frontline providers worked in primary healthcare settings during the recent Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. These providers received relatively little attention compared with those working in Ebola treatment units or Ebola patients and their families despite their critical role in the epidemic response.

CHW roles similar to Vandi et al.

Frontline providers working in PHU setting including community health officers (CHOs), nurses, maternal child health aides, CHWs and laboratory technicians.

They were responsible for assisting lactating mothers, visiting sick, dying or grieving family members.

There were lower grade health workers (para health professionals), such as porters.

CHWs were involved in community-based maternal, new born, and child health,

CHW services in all the three countries and through a government run programme.

CHWs, traditional birth attendants (TBAs), community health committee (CHC) and traditional healers (TH) were study participants in addition to others.

They were responsible for community-based MNCH services, Ebola-related activities and so on.

They received limited support in terms of financial incentive; many CHWs had not been supplied with basic equipment such as rain gear and ID cards.

CHWs had a supervisory role over TBAs while CHCs made up of community leaders, religious leaders, women’s leaders and youth leaders supervised both CHWs and TBAs.

CHWs in these countries worked as volunteers and received small travel allowances and some non-financial incentives, such as boots, rain gear and flashlights.

CHWs were trained on to provide Integrated community case management (iCCM) and screen for malnutrition, ‘no touch’ policy, how to care for somebody with EVD in the community and were deployed as ‘active case finders’ during pandemic.

TBAs reported that they were given neither training nor infection prevention and control (IPC) materials.

The study was conducted to compare the knowledge, attitudes and practices of routine healthcare providers on suspected EVD cases

Government-run programme.

CHWs (also known as prestataires de soins de sant) are posted at health centres (five per centre) and hold responsibility for primary healthcare and prevention activities.

They were instructed to follow the ‘Contactless’ policy and avoid the use of needles wherever infection control measures were weak.

CHWs programme were run by government and the study documents role of CHWs is documented short-term or long-term crises management during EVD.

CHWs in general were responsible for referral and community-based treatment of child diarrhoea, malaria, pneumonia, and immunisation

Integrated community case management (iCCM) of child illnesses was in function form 2010 to guide CHW work

CHWS conducted house-to-house visits, community meetings, do active case finding or contact tracing.

County health officers and health facility staff were responsible for supervising CHWs.

CHWs were trained on infection prevention and ‘No Touch iCCM’ as part of training on treatment of child malaria during outbreak.

Context expected to be similar to Vandi et al.

Disease surveillance officers, CHWs observed the residents for signs of illness, contact tracing, active surveillance and health education.

They were trained on health education to educate residents on symptoms of Ebola.

Context expected to be similar to Vandi et al, and the study was part of a research to understand postconflict health systems.

Community Health Officers (CHOs), nurse health assistants, community health assistant and community health nurse were included.

CHWs were involved in outreach and referral services.

Additional financial incentives like remote area allowance, performance-based financing payments or accommodation allowances were not received prepandemic. Often had to use own money to buy medicines.

CHWs mentioned not receiving regular in-service training.

CHW programme in Sierra Leone is largely government managed through public health system.

 Context expected to be similar to Vandi et al.

CHWs and CHOs. Often they left government health facilities to work for non-profits for lack of career progression.

Low remuneration of health workers was reported leading to government increasing salaries; however, it was thought to be not commensurate with increased living costs.

Additional financial incentives, such as the remote area allowance was provided.

Study was conducted under the realms of a research programme to understand health systems postconflict scenarios.

CHWs, CHOs and nurse aid were included.

CHWS often had or loss of pay or it was severely delayed.

CHWs were initially provided ration food portions as remuneration . Later payments in rice were converted to cash.

CHWS often had to use own resources or borrow or pass costs to patients.

Workshops and training on rebuilding relationships with communities was provided.

‘Front Line health worker Education and disease Management (FLEM) project’, developed by Instrat and Anadach (non-government) and implemented on the Vecna Cares CliniPAK system under a Qualcomm Wireless Reach grant. They funded an educational intervention to train frontline health workers on mHealth for improving health system functions during the Ebola epidemic.

CHOs, nurses/midwives, community health extension workers responsible for maternal and child health (MCH) care were involved.

Participants were trained to use tablet computers and the CliniPAK electronic application.

The Healthy Beginning Initiative (HBI) though funded through the government is non-profit run (churches and church-based community networks).

HBI promotes individual testing for diseases such as HIV, malaria, sickle cell, hepatitis and syphilis and provides education about prevention of infectious diseases (HIV, hepatitis, syphilis and malaria) through VHAs.

VHAs are lay volunteers at church-based community health programme but is run by government.

VHAs were provided an Ebola awareness training session along with training for strategies on dissemination.

61% of VHAs had college education and those with tertiary education had significantly higher knowledge.

Uganda had four EVD and five Marburg virus outbreaks from 2000 to 2012 and has significantly high health worker mortality.

Uganda has CHW programme as a part of primary healthcare system.

The study included multitude of professionals including nurse aides/nurse assistants and health educators working in government set-up.

Most health workers initially fled but later returned after hazard pay was increased. However, they complained this compensation failed to cover the basic necessities.

CHWs (health facility-based workers) were volunteers who supported case finding, case notification and contact monitoring/tracing activities.

CHWs supported active case finding, facility-based health workers were trained on the outbreak-specific definitions for suspected, probable and confirmed cases.

Participatory methods were used for training and direct supervision from local health authorities.

CHWs who worked for public health centres and were engaged in malaria case management using WHO guidelines, community mobilisation and referral of fever cases to health facility at district level.

CHWs became inactive or left their unpaid malaria case management duties to be paid EVD contact tracers.

National health workers that included health assistants, who were working in Ebola treatment centres and in other government facilities.

Additional risk allowance of approximately US$70 was given to CHOs working in treatment centres and community care centres and all members of the burial team,

Additional risk allowance of approximately US$13 were given to contact tracers.

Additional support in the form of tents and medicines was given by some agencies to WHO, but this was often delayed by at least 1 week.

Community workers and supervisors, as part of the WHO Ebola National Coordination team engaged in contact tracing. This was government run initiative.

At the time of the study, none of the community workers had received their salary, and only 50% and 23% of the households had received the nutrition assistance from World Food Program in Ratoma and Boké, respectively.

Contact tracing activities in Guinea involved contact tracing teams, composed of community workers and supervisors. Community workers were recruited among literate persons living in the community and were trained as contact tracers.

The community workers were monitored and supervised by physicians and/or epidemiologists.

Several difficulties were reported hindering the adequate follow-up of contacts, which highlighted the need to ensure the quality of all aspects of the contact tracing process.

An audit tool was used to asses contact tracing activities of the contact tracing team and identifying strengths and weaknesses of their activity.

The study had included a small number of CHWs as well as others from the Ghana Health Service and Veterinary Services Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

A 2-week didactic course was conducted with a 10-week field placement evaluation of the course was done by assessment of participants’ outputs during the training as well as pretest and post-test methods.

It was a competency-based training workshop on public health surveillance and disease outbreak investigation and response with a focus on EVD.

The training was modelled on the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program short courses for public health workers, which are run globally.

The study sought to identify the problems encountered with CHW for social mobilisation strategies for early detection and outbreak control during the initial stages of the epidemic.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies funded and organised social mobilisation and psychosocial support during EVD and trained and recruited CHWs.

Local volunteers and local CHWs (VHTs) were recruited (at sub-district level) and trained to provide psychosocial support and built community trust and confidence.

Community members have a key role to play in early detection of Viral Haemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) such as Ebola. They are responsible for the social mobilisation strategies.

CHWs were employed in government run health centres/posts and from district and regional level maternities.

They were engaged in providing maternal and child healthcare services (care providers and managers) and in managing febrile cases.

CHWs received trained in use of PPE (87% received training) and infection prevention (82% received training) during the EVD outbreak.

Intensified Preparedness Programme (IPP) was set up in 2015 through government support to work alongside other initiatives by the UN, International Federation of the Red Cross, UNICEF and WHO.

IPP was funded by The Rockefeller Foundation and managed by Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance.

IPP intended to bring together all community-based health ‘shapers’ who had experience in working in EVD outbreaks.

Community-based ‘health shapers’ is a mix of health professionals, community leaders, religious leaders and traditional healers who influenced the narrative of infectious disease management, risk communication and community outreach in their local and national environments.

A series of 2-day training programmes to be held in different countries was designed for these influencers.

Training programmes on infection control, community engagement, appropriate communication, capacity building, care coordination and culture sensitisation.

The study was conducted to understand about possible transmission routes for the woman’s infection by Médecins Sans Frontières.

Context similar to Vandi et al in terms.

Village traditional birth attendant (VTBA).

Not clear if the VTBA was trained and no other specific information provided.

CHWs— were mostly volunteers.They were used to improve community health initiatives, social mobilisation, disease surveillance to manage the risk of infectious diseases (eg, malaria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis), distribution of culturally appropriate health information and supplies.

CHWs also acted as a community-level triage system—treating those with minor illness and referring those with more serious disease . This helped decrease the health systems burden.

CHWs were trained to assist in the communication or provision of health services and for extending health services at subnational levels in the context of health interventions to carry out defined functions related to healthcare delivery but rarely have formal professional or para professional certifications, or degreed tertiary education.

Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) is a multilateral and multisectoral initiative that seeks to build and enhance global capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to infectious disease threats by investing in infrastructure, equipment and skilled health workforce personnel.

The article advocates for community engagement in GHSA implementation. Most studies included are from contexts of government run CHW programmes (although these were not described specifically).

Several types of CHWs were discussed. These are village health volunteers, community health agents, community health volunteers, village health workers and lay health visitors.

Community and religious leaders were trained as social mobilisers in some studies.

CHW roles were on the lines of conduct regular monitoring of communicable disease trends and provide regular reporting of pregnancies, births and deaths in rural areas or those with respect to TB and malaria.

Majority of CHWs were trained to provide basic health services without receiving any formal professional or paraprofessional certificate or degreed tertiary education.

CHWs provide health education, gather information and deliver basic curative and preventive services at the community and household levels.

In some contexts, CHWs were engaged in house to house for community sensitisation, promotion of epidemiologically and culturally appropriate protective practices, data collection and searching for active cases and contacts for EVD.

In majority of the cases and in many countries, there was no formal training or education for these CHWs.

In one case, dual cadre of CHWs was used consisting of health extension workers (who are professionalised with 1 year of formal training and are paid for serving 2500 people) and health development army volunteers (trained informally by health extension workers and serving 5–10 families).

Outbreaks of deadly infection among health workers are considered red flags that should trigger suspicion for EVD or Marburg virus disease (MVD) and often result in nosocomial spread between staff and patients and then spread back into the community.

HWs have been recognised as having an increased risk of infection, owing to their occupational exposure to blood and body fluids, particularly in the absence of appropriate IPC and occupational health and safety measures.

Thus, it is important to identify and compare infection and mortality rates and common exposure risks in health workers in EVD and Marburg virus disease (MVD) outbreaks.

CHWs (included traditional healers, mother-and-child aides and contact tracers).

Lack of availability of appropriate equipment and/or the lack of training in PPE use during patient care, patient transport and cleaning and environmental disinfection activities.

The WHO and International Labour Organization recommend that health workers with EVD and MVD resulting from work activities should have the right to compensation, as well as free rehabilitation and access to curative services.

This was not on an existing programme. CHWs implemented an intervention to improve communication between health providers and at-risk patients. The intervention was a communication system consisted of a new automated call monitoring system, applied to second-trimester and third-trimester pregnant women during H1N1 epidemic. This was on the backdrop of CDC recommendation for influenza vaccination to high-risk pregnant women.

The study was designed in partnership with

 CHWs and nurse practitioners/midwives and university scientists.

CHWs were employed full time by the birth centre at the district level.

CHWS were trained via a web-based National Insitute of Health (NIH) human subject training (with in-person support).

CHWs were engaged in health education session on H1N1 influenza and its dangers for pregnant women, an electronic 8 s thermometer to monitor their temperature when they suspected fever and an educational pregnancy wall calendar to help record appointments and other useful information.

CHWs voice was used for the automated call recording for monitoring. Pregnant woman were given unlimited minutes and also a small additional US$35 to pay.

The study was done to explore perceptions of healthcare workers of UK National Health Services during the influenza pandemic, in order to identify factors that might influence their willingness and ability to work and potential sources of any perceived duty to work.

Community-based HCWs (mostly volunteer) recruited from three NHS Trusts in the West Midlands, one acute teaching, one rural district general and one Primary Care Trust.

 No special protections were given to staff working in extended roles during the pandemic.

In Iceland, the Directorate of Health highly unlikely that (EVD) undertook an exercise to establish preparedness plans for Ebola in Iceland. The focus of the study is to understand perspectives and experiences of managers and frontline health workers who were involved in the process.

Frontline health professionals worked in the emergency room (ER). This included auxiliary nurses. No other details provided.

They attended special training sessions focused on protocols for admission and treatment of a patient with EVD, the donning/doffing of PPE and personal protective measures during patient care.

During the EVD outbreak in West Africa, contact tracing posed serious challenges, in part as a result of the wide geographical expanse of the EVD outbreak, insufficient resources (human, financial and logistical) and to some extent, limited access to affected communities.

It is critical that all potential contacts of suspect, probable and confirmed Ebola cases are systemically identified and put under observation for 21 days.

The guidance notes were prepared to articulate and streamline the process of contact tracing with an objective is to facilitate setting up a functional system for conducting systematic contact tracing.