Certificate in Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene

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.

Prerequisites/concurrent: EPI 504 or EPI 530 and BIOS 500 or permission of instructor. Provides training in the investigation, control, and prevention of infectious diseases by both descriptive and analytic epidemiological techniques. Students work with infectious diseases of national and international interest. Cross-listed with EPI 517.

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.

The course introduces the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the analysis of public health data. We develop GIS skills through homework, quizzes, and a case study. Specific skills include map layouts, visualization, and basic GIS operations such as buffering, layering, summarizing, geocoding, digitizing and spatial queries.

Prerequisites: INFO DATA 530 or permission of the instructor. The course continues the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the analysis of public health data and adds more advanced features. We develop GIS skills through homework, quizzes and a final project, and particularly build upon the skills learned in INFO 530 such as map layouts, visualization, basic spatial statistics, and basic GIS operations such as buffering, layering, summarizing, geocoding, digitizing and spatial queries. We add new topics such as raster analysis open source GIS, (qgis), geo databases, story maps, and making maps in R.

Prerequisites: GH 521 or instructor permission. This course provides students with the principles and skills for analyzing qualitative data. Students will learn how to assess data quality, prepare data for analysis, use different analytic techniques, and write and present data. Students will learn analytic techniques through guided classroom activities, lab sessions using MAXQDA software and structured assignments. No data are required, we provide class data sets, but students can use qualitative data collected during their summer applied practice experience if suitable. Each student will work with an individual data set in course assignments.

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.

Recommended Prerequisite: GH 529 Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries or equivalent. This hands-on course covers methods needed to carry out field studies focused on water and health. Through lecture and laboratory exercises, students will learn critical skills in measuring water quality exposure assessment and waterborne disease health outcomes that will enable them to conduct their own field studies and analyze the resulting data. The focus will be on issues of microbiological contamination in developing countries, but chemical contamination and domestic cases will also be covered.

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.

The course introduces the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the analysis of public health data. We develop GIS skills through homework, quizzes, and a case study. Specific skills include map layouts, visualization, and basic GIS operations such as buffering, layering, summarizing, geocoding, digitizing and spatial queries.

Prerequisites: INFO DATA 530 or permission of the instructor. The course continues the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in the analysis of public health data and adds more advanced features. We develop GIS skills through homework, quizzes and a final project, and particularly build upon the skills learned in INFO 530 such as map layouts, visualization, basic spatial statistics, and basic GIS operations such as buffering, layering, summarizing, geocoding, digitizing and spatial queries. We add new topics such as raster analysis open source GIS, (qgis), geo databases, story maps, and making maps in R.

In this course, students will explore the special environmental disease burden in Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), contributing factors, and specific risks. They will critically evaluate the principal environmental interventions for effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability. They will examine policies and practices of international organizations, governments, and implementers. They will also consider the effects of climate change on these environmental health risks. Throughout the course, students will address the justice issues presented this large and preventable disease burden borne almost exclusively on low-resource populations.

Develop the knowledge and skills necessary to be and engage with water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) champions, program managers, researchers, policymakers, and donors. The course supports applied learning on developing, executing, and evaluating sustainable and inclusive WASH in Schools interventions in collaboration with stakeholders. Students will interact with development professionals and policy makers from various countries and organizations such as UNICEF, CARE, Save the Children, GIZ and others.

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. It 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.

Recommended prerequisite: EH 582/GH 582. Building on EH/GH 582, this course offers an advanced examination of climate and health research and solutions. On the research side, this course will use an in-depth climate health impact assessment study to demonstrate scientific premise, study design, data access and processing, research methodology, results visualization and interpretation. On the solutions side, we will unpack the history and current state of play of global and national climate policy while also diving deep into state and local efforts. In addition, we will pursue emerging topics related to climate change research and policy. Throughout the semester, students will work on a project that will contribute to the Georgia Climate Project, a multi-university consortium co-founded by Emory. Through this effort we will apply systems thinking tools to propose strategies and identify stakeholders important for implementing climate solutions.

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.

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.

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.