Pre-requisite: Current enrollment in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Certificate program at RSPH. Non-certificate students may enroll with permission of the instructor. Infectious disease epidemiology incorporates the fundamental principle that a person's risk of infection often depends on the disease status of another person or the disease prevalence at the population level. Therefore, events are not independent, violating a key assumption of classic epidemiological methods and requiring a different set of methods to approach infectious diseases. This course is a requirement of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Certificate at RSPH. It will provide incoming students an orientation to the breadth of current topics in the field of infectious disease EPI.

This course provides practical training in the investigation, control, and prevention of infectious diseases. Historic and current case studies will be used to teach skills for identifying infectious disease outbreaks, conducting epidemiologic analyses to describe causal factors and affected populations, and implementing public health control measures in collaboration with stakeholders. This course is cross-listed with GH517.

Prerequisite: Helpful if students have some background in biology. This course covers ways the environment influences the transmission and spread of infectious diseases in humans. We consider air, water, soil, animal, and human influences, with case studies on each of these factors. The course covers methods used in the study of infectious diseases, including epidemiology, mathematical modeling, risk analysis, social science, ecology, and molecular biology. Students will learn to think from the perspective of a pathogen trying to maximize its fitness over both short- and long-term time scales.

Various topics by GDEH faculty. Check OPUS/Atlas for current topics and descriptions.

Prerequisites: EPI 530 or EPI 504 and BIOS 500 or instructor permission. Roughly ten million persons pass through a jail or prison each year in the United States. This half-semester, seminar-style course will explore the possible impact of the criminal justice system on the epidemiology of infectious diseases and on health indicators in general. The correctional setting will be used as a case study to illustrate how environment, public policy, behavior and biology all interact to determine the well-being of a population. Lessons learned from studying correctional health are applicable to understanding the determinants of health for other institutionalized populations and in other controlled settings. We have plans to make a trip to a local correctional facility.

Prerequisite/concurrent: EPI 530 or EPI 504. The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the current purview of sexually transmitted disease in the developing and industrialized world.

Prerequisites/concurrent: EPI 504 or EPI 530 and BIOS 500. This course will provide training in the investigation, control, and prevention of hospital acquired infectious diseases and other hospital events by the use of appropriate epidemiologic techniques, both descriptive and analytic.

Prerequisite: EPI 504, or EPI 530, or co-requisite. To provide training in the domestic and international public health aspects of tuberculosis; its epidemiology and diagnosis, the theory and practice of treatment, and means of prevention in developed and developing countries; and the interaction between HIV and tuberculosis. Cross-listed with GH 562.

Prerequisites: EPI 530 and BIOS 500 or instructor permission. Explores the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic in the US through a detailed examination of the major types of epidemiologic studies that have led to our current understanding of the epidemic. Students gain an understanding of important issues in the epidemiology of HIV in the US, and, as importantly, increase their understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various epidemiologic study designs and the interpretation of data from such studies.

This course will acquaint students with the comprehensive nature of public health preparedness and response efforts for disasters whether natural or man-made. Students will get introduced to practical considerations of public health preparedness from the local, state, and national levels. Discussions of specific preparedness elements necessary for responses to natural disasters and man-made events will be covered, often in consultation with guest speakers and experts in various aspects of public health preparedness and practice. Ethical and legal issues related to preparedness and bioterrorism are also discussed. Students can expect interactive discussions, assigned readings, in-class exercises, and a project and/or paper.

Provides an introduction to the entire spectrum of vaccines and immunization: from basic bench research through testing, licensure, and use; program design, implementation and evaluation; and social, economic, and political factors affecting the use of vaccines. Primary emphasis will be on the international setting but examples will also be taken from developed countries. Cross-listed with GH 566.

Prerequisites: EPI 530, EPI 540, EPI 534, and experience using R. The course will provide an overview of the history, concepts and analytical methods that specifically apply to the study of infectious diseases. Topics covered include measures of frequency, burden and natural history; immune-epidemiology; vaccine epidemiology; methods for emerging infectious diseases; fundamentals of modeling and the application of classic epi methods to infectious diseases. This is a required course for the Infectious Disease Epidemiology certificate program.

This course will present the conceptual theory, mathematical framework, and computational tools to conduct mechanistic modeling of infectious diseases.

Various topics by Epi faculty. Check OPUS/Atlas for current topics and descriptions.

The course provides students with techniques needed to develop, evaluate, and sustain successful drinking water and sanitation interventions for developing countries. The course focuses on practical field and laboratory methods needed for different stages of projects, including: assessment of perceived and actual need, alternative strategies for different environmental settings, assessing cost and financial sustainability of projects, laboratory and field techniques for assessing exposure to microbial and chemical agents, and measuring health outcomes (for baseline or effectiveness assessment). This course includes synchronous/asynchronous lectures, in-class activities, live/online discussions, group projects, case studies, a laboratory exercise, and a final project that integrates learning objectives.

This course provides an introduction to the collection of quantitative, representative data. Taking an applied approach, we cover the entire process of designing a study, including instrument design, sampling methods, budgeting and training, fieldwork components, and coding and editing of data. The focus is on collecting data in less-developed countries. Students develop their own surveys and accompanying methods proposals, which they may use for their Applied Practice Experience or other projects.

This course will explore the changing ways in which religion has been utilized to make sense of illness, mobilize or hinder productive responses, and impact policies in the global HIV response. These processes have played out in different ways across cultures; the course will critically explore a broad spectrum of religious, political, and public health contexts to assess religions' influences. The first half of the course will explore a conceptual framework for analyzing four ways that religions influences the global HIV response; the second half will consist of an extended roleplay with students representing a global faith-based organization to develop a proposal and related budget for carrying out HIV programs. Alternates with GH 588. GH 536 is offered Spring J-term of even years. GH 588 is offered Spring J-term of odd years.

GH 563 is a participatory, seminar-style course designed to help learners at all levels gain familiarity with ongoing developments and debates in HIV treatment, prevention, policy and science. Topics covered in GH 563 include the history of AIDS, changing trends in global epidemiology, recent advances in HIV clinical, basic, and social sciences, and the challenges to and multidisciplinary strategies for addressing the global HIV epidemic in the next 20 years. The course examines the HIV/AIDS epidemic from both global and domestic perspectives and features guest lectures, small group discussions, written work and oral presentations. This elective course may be taken at any point in a student's program.

This course will develop in-depth understanding of epidemiological, biological, and applied aspects of commonly used vaccines and vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) of public health importance. The course content will be structured to review specific vaccines and VPDs (rather than overarching aspects of immunization programs covered in GH 566/EPI 566). Where relevant, the course lecturers will use examples from both developed and developing countries

This course offers a practical introduction to the prevention, control, and treatment of malaria. Participants will understand the biology of both the malaria parasite and the mosquito vector, and how their interactions with the human host result in the epidemiology of malaria. In addition, this class will review the history of malaria control and current prevention and control activities in endemic countries, including vector control, case management, and reducing the burden of malaria in pregnancy. In addition to lectures from a number of experts from CDC there will be practical, hands-on sessions related to vector control and malaria diagnostics.

Introduces the major disease-causing microorganisms in the environment and their transmission through water, food, and air. Describes the organisms, pathogenesis, clinical diseases, reservoirs, modes of transmission, and epidemiology and surveillance systems. Discusses the transport, survival, and fate of pathogens in the environment, the concept of indicator organisms as surrogates for pathogens, and the removal and inactivation of pathogens and indicators by water and wastewater treatment processes. Presents examples of the public health impact of foodborne and waterborne diseases in developing countries.

This course will explore the public health impacts of global climate change, the responses undertaken by the health sector to become more resilient to those impacts, and potential mitigation efforts and activities. Public health responses will cover examples from around the world, and include issues around risk communication and implementation of the adaptation strategies. The course will provide a practical approach to conducting vulnerability and risk assessments, and students will be introduced to a range of skills to assess and respond to climate-related health impacts. Cross-listed with EH 582.