Eradicating Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases

IID 201 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course is a survey to introduce core concepts and tools of disease eradication. We will discuss the current tools (or lack of tools), the evidence for their effective use, and their successes and failures, and we will discuss the policies and programs required to effectively use these tools for infectious disease control and eradication. In Session 1-6, we will focus on malaria as a context for introducing the many aspects of disease eradication. From Session 7-13, each session will focus on control and/or eradication of a new neglected tropical disease. Session 14-16 will then synthesize the course content and introduce new real-world challenges that will shape the implementation of disease control and eradication programs discussed in this course.

The class will meet twice a week, and each session will be divided into a didactic/lecture part and a discussion part. During the discussion, we will actively evaluate the evidence behind current global public health practices, emphasizing “cross-cutting” concepts and tools that are relevant to several of the diseases discussed in this course.

The tangible skills that will be obtained during this course include the ability to recognize, utilize, and critically evaluate strategies for disease eradication and the ability to effectively communicate a plan for systematic control and/or eradication of malaria and neglected tropical diseases.