Infectious Diseases Epidemiology and Global Public Health

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This course studies infectious diseases in a multidisciplinary way with a global public health emphasis. The first part of this course will introduce some basic knowledge on the disease processes and the human immune responses. Following the introductory components, the second part of the course will focus on three types of viruses that cause zoonotic/infectious diseases in the modern era: retroviruses (i.e., HIV/AIDS), influenza viruses (i.e., H5N1, H1N1, H7N9), and coronaviruses (i.e., SARS, MERS, COVID-19). The focus of the discussion will be on the biology of host-pathogen interactions, the basic epidemiology of infectious diseases, and possible counter-measures, including disease surveillance and vaccine development. Cutting across these cases, we will also look into the importance of social determinants of infectious diseases. The global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will be explored in the third part of the course. Factors affecting drug use, both on macro and micro levels, will be discussed and analyzed. We will wrap up the course by highlighting the "One Health" concept (i.e., human-animal-environment interfaces) in responding to zoonotic diseases and AMR