Epidemiological Methods for Communicable Diseases
- Course Number
- CHL5432H
- Series
- 5400 (Epidemiology)
- Format
- Lecture
- Course Instructor(s)
- David N. Fisman
Course Description
Building on the foundation in communicable disease epidemiology provided in CHL5412H this course will use a case-based approach to expand methodological skills necessary for the measurement, study, and modeling of infectious diseases in public health practice. Public health practice is a fundamentally collaborative discipline, and much of the work performed in this course will be similarly collaborative; the focus will be on hands-on learning and skill building, much of which will take place in small groups and via class participation.
Course Objectives
- Students will understand core concepts necessary for the description and evaluation of infectious processes, including the nature and definition of outbreaks, epidemics, and endemic disease spread; incubation, latency, and carriage; reproductive numbers; immunity; nosocomial infection; and emergence/re-emergence of diseases, with an emphasis on zoonotic threats and the “One Health” paradigm.
- Students will develop a quantitative and analytic skill set related to the measurement and control of infectious diseases, including basic aspects of outbreak documentation and investigation (including case-control/cohort studies); principles of infectious disease surveillance (including analysis of rates and counts); understanding and evaluation of diagnostic techniques used to understand infectious diseases and their epidemiology (including issues in testing related to “tarnished gold standards”), analysis and modeling of seroprevalence data, and evaluation of environmental impacts on disease risk, including case-crossover study design and distributed lag models.
- Students will gain familiarity with tools, resources and data sources used by public health professionals seeking to remain abreast of the rapidly changing world of infectious diseases; these include the ProMED system, GPHIN, Google.org-based tools, and HealthMap.
Methods of Assessment
| Active contribution to discussions | 10% |
| In class “surprise” quizzes (4 @ 2.5%) | 10% |
| Midterm examination (in class) | 35% |
| Final assignment and presentation | 45% |