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Continuing Professional Development - MSc Programme Modules (London-based)

EPIDEMIOLOGY & CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES (2437)

ORGANISERS: Professor Paul Fine, Dr Andrea Mann

DATES: 22 February 2012 to 23 March 2012 (2.00pm Wednesday to 5pm Friday)


AIM
To provide four perspectives on the epidemiology of communicable diseases: basic concepts and methods; epidemiological aspects of vaccination; surveillance and outbreak investigation; and detailed discussion of the epidemiology of important representative infectious diseases.


OBJECTIVES
By the end of this module students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate understanding of the factors determining the temporal, spatial and social distributions of infectious diseases;
  2. state and explain the principles underlying simple mathematical models of communicable diseases;
  3. design, carry out, analyse, interpret and report an outbreak investigation;
  4. interpret and evaluate surveillance systems for communicable diseases;
  5. plan, conduct and evaluate immunization programmes, including estimation of vaccine efficacy and effectiveness, and identification of reasons for programme failure;
  6. critically assess practical applications of epidemiological methods employed in the study of particular infectious diseases.


CONSTITUENCY
This module is intended for students interested in the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases in either developing or developed countries.  To benefit from the module students will need to have an understanding of basic epidemiological and statistical methods as covered in Term 1.  Some prior familiarity with the Epi-Info or Epi-Data software package is recommended but not essential.


CONCEPTUAL OUTLINE
The module material is arranged in four concurrent blocks:

  1. Methods and concepts: incubation periods, epidemic patterns, modes of transmission, transmission dynamics, measures of infectiousness, secondary attack rates, mathematical models of infection dynamics and sero-epidemiology.
  2. Outbreak investigation and surveillance: includes a simulated outbreak which students investigate, analyse and write-up.
  3. Vaccination: includes technical and clinical/immunological aspects, schedules, adverse reactions, contraindications, vaccine efficacy, impact assessment, UK and EPI programme issues.
  4. Specific diseases: will include some or all of TB, Leprosy, Polio, STDs, AIDS, Meningococcal meningitis, Hepatitis B, and Measles.


TEACHING STRATEGY
A variety of teaching methods will be used, including traditional didactic lectures, problem solving practicals, group work (outbreak investigation), demonstration, debate and a field trip to The Health Promotion Agency, Centre for Infections (CfI).  Note: this is a busy study module!


LEARNING TIME
The module is made up of 150 Notional Learning Hours – 65 hours contact time, 40 hours directed self-study, 3 hours self-directed learning, and 45 hours assessment, review and revision.


ASSESSMENT
Assessment will be based upon a group-written outbreak investigation report (c.20%) and a multiple choice question examination (c.80%).

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