The most complete electronic information resource on public health for emergency preparedness and response and complex emergencies.
The development and publication of technical information and training materials (books, slides, videos ...) is one of the main areas of work that WHO and PAHO have in the area of emergencies and disasters, as are the efforts to disseminate and distribute these materials to member countries, at the lowest cost possible. This new revision of HELID Library (originally created in 1998) is another step in this long road.
This version has been updated with new publications or technical documents, produced by PAHO and WHO in the last three years, in the fields of emergencies and disasters. A new fourth edition will be published in 2008, for which we will seek contributions of those agencies who contributed to the previous editions.
HELID was an inter-agency effort, to which more than 20 international organizations have contributed, including United Nations agencies such as UNHCR, UNICEF, ISRD; the Red Cross movement through IFRC and ICRC; the Sphere Project; and other non-governmental and national agencies (the complete list can be found in the
Useful Information section).
HELID (available through the Internet and in CD-ROM version) allows easy and fast access to a large amount of technical information, selected using practical and scientific criteria. It contains more than 650 full-text documents, with more than 40,000 scanned text pages and over 12,000 images. The documents include technical guidelines, manuals, field guides, disaster chronicles, case studies, emergency kits, newsletters, and other training materials. They are in English, Spanish, French, and some even in Russian.
Comments or requests for additional information can be directed to WHO at
crisis@who.int, or PAHO at
disaster-publications@paho.org.
Visit the collection online at
www.helid.desastres.net, or consult WHO's or PAHO's websites:
www.who.int/disasters/
www.paho.org/desastres 
