Course Description

Course Description:

Biological Principles of Emerging Diseases: 3 credit hours

Sue Fisher-Hoch, MD and Blanca Restrepo, PhD

Objectives

By the end of ths course we will expect students to:

1. understand the basic biological, economic, political and social principles underlying emergence of disease.
2. be able to review an emerging disease outside their own area of expertise, understand the principles of the underlying causes and make some predictions as to probable outcome
3. understand how to develop control strategies for a specific disease
4. write and present orally their own proposal to study a topic of their choice, including literature review and management of references (thesis format). Student presentations will use PowerPoint and ITV.

Description of the course

This course is aimed to give students from disparate backgrounds the basic knowledge that will permit them to understand the principles which underlie epidemics and emergence of new diseases. In this course an emerging disease is anything from HIV or SARS, to obesity and diabetes, with particular emphasis on the US/Mexico border. Factors ranging from human and microbial genetics, molecular epidemiology, economics, culture, climate and major social disruptions, such as warfare and migration will all be explored. Students will be introduced to a variety of topics using real examples which they will have to research and then examine to determine causes and propose control measures. Teaching on preparation of slides, use of ITV, reference manager software and other tools will be included. Students will be taught the basics of molecular medicine sufficient to understand at least in principle the major reports on emerging diseases. In addition to weekly assignments, students will prepare over the semester a proposal to investigate a problem of their choice in a format suitable for grant submission or publication. Teaching on how to develop and put their ideas into research paper format will also be included.

Format

Three hour classes, by ITV, Wednesday 3-6 p.m. All campuses.
Each class will have a lecture of 1-2 hours, with several invited speakers presenting their main research interests.
1-2 hours of student presentations (set topics and reviews of the literature) and discussions.

Website has

Slides for each lecture, several with voice over
Assignments, reading, etc.
Students presentations
Instructions on proposal writing, literature review, slide making, etc.
Links to RefWorks and other tutorials
Links to online quizzes

Background

The idea of this course is to prepare a series of set-piece lectures by people who are real experts in a particular area to give a lecture on their favorite topic. We are trying to base the discussions on looking at the ways various factors interact to cause epidemics (emergence), including host and parasite genetics, economics, migrations, social changes, etc. Hopefully this will make discussions interesting, and help you begin to understand the fundamentals of emergence, so that in your future life, you can understand and possibly anticipate changes in disease patterns. We will use the border as a focal point for discussions, but this will not be exclusive. For instance, Joe and I will bring in material and experience from Africa and Asia and elsewhere. Lecturers range from experts you know at the school, to people from Baylor and New Mexico. Several of the lecturers have worked at CDC and all have hands on experience.

We will also cover a number of critical techniques that you need to understand (not necessarily use) in understanding emerging diseases. These range from quantitative PCR to GIS mapping and social network analysis, and one of the lectures will actually demonstrate the successful combination of molecular genotyping with social network analysis (genetics and behavioral science!). Hopefully this approach will let students get an idea of the value of a broad approach to public health research. You don't have to do everything, but it helps if you understand what the other guy is doing, and how, for instance, to hold the gel the right way up!

Our plan is to put as much material on line as possible for use at times convenient to the students. This will included slides with voice over, resources, reading, quizzes, assisgnments etc. We will expect some class presentations. This will allow you to get some experience with communications. In addition to papers, homework will be focused around the stepwise preparation of a research proposal in an emerging disease subject of your choice. If you do well in this, you should end up learning how to write the central core of a grant proposal. Back to the Syllabus