Ecology of Infectious Diseases

[VMED 5180] 3.0 credits
This course focuses on the ways in which host, agent and environmental interactions influence the transmission of infectious agents. How do pathogens come to be what they are? How do they cause epidemics? How do host populations respond? Can we use this information to explain and predict disease patterns? How do we measure pathogen and epidemic attributes? What are the strengths and weaknesses of these methods? Lectures address these questions with specific topics including: transmission probability, herd immunity, evolution of virulence, host specificity, host-agent co-evolution, antimicrobial resistance, environmental dissemination, eradication and control and use of analytical and molecular tools.
VMED5180 Syllabus Fall 2015

Spatial Analysis in Infectious Disease Epidemiology

[VMED 5181] 3.0 credits
Knowledge of the spatial distribution of disease events (exposures and outcomes), and factors that determine where disease occurs, is a foundation of epidemiology and public health. Although disease maps have a long history of use in public health, it is only recently that methods for analysis of spatial disease data have become widely available. This course will provide students with a framework for analyzing spatial disease data, and illustrate the importance of such techniques in public health, geography and epidemiology. With this knowledge, students should be able to design, analyze and report on their own studies. The course will focus on human and animal health-related examples. The course will focus primarily on the spatial distribution of infectious diseases, but the principles discussed apply equally well to non-infectious diseases.
VMED 5181 Syllabus Spring 2015