PBH 451 - CUE: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Course unit(s): 1
Prerequisite(s): PBH 201 Issues in Public Health , PBH 250 Fundamentals of Epidemiology , and PBH 325 Introduction to Global Health .
Zika. Dengue. Ebola. Chikungunya - all words that have become part of the mainstream vernacular in recent years. These infectious diseases and others contribute to a worldwide public health crisis. Globally, they are the cause of millions of deaths and chronic illness among children and adults, especially in developing countries. Infectious Disease Epidemiology (IDE) is a specific area of study within the field of Public Health that involves the study of the prevalence, incidence, and determinants of infections in populations. The goals of this new course are to use infectious disease epidemics as a model for understanding how the social determinants of health such as socioeconomic status, culture, traditions, education levels, employment, and access to health care contribute to global morbidity and mortality rates; to examine how various agencies and non-governmental organizations who respond to and control epidemics on both a domestic and global scale are helped and hindered by politics and economics; and, to examine epidemics throughout history to determine what lessons can be learned from the past to help us deal with future epidemics more effectively.