Infectious Disease
The Infectious Disease concentration prepares students to recognize, prevent, investigate, and respond to infectious disease threats in diverse populations and healthcare settings. Students build knowledge of infectious disease impacts on individuals and communities, the dynamics of pathogen transmission, and evidence-based approaches to prevention and response at local and global levels. Skills are developed in infectious disease pathogenesis, epidemiology, outbreak investigation, infection prevention and control, risk assessment, and disease surveillance. Through the application of epidemiologic methods and public health practice, students learn to analyze disease patterns, evaluate risks, and design effective response strategies. Graduates are prepared for careers as epidemiologists, infection preventionists, disease intervention specialists, infectious disease testing coordinators, and other public health professionals serving in local, state, federal, and international agencies, healthcare settings, NGOs, and research support settings.
Upon completion of the MPH degree, graduates from the Infectious Disease concentration will demonstrate proficiency in the following competencies:
- Analyze symptoms and signs to identify infectious diseases and pathogenic processes in individuals.
- Apply epidemiological methods to temporal and spatial dynamics of infectious diseases in populations.
- Design infection control and prevention plans applicable to different settings.
- Select appropriate methods to perform risk assessments in different settings.
- Design appropriate strategies to investigate and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.
Infectious Disease Concentration Courses
Students are required to take the following concentration courses:
Instructor: Andrea Bertke
Course Description: Principles of infectious diseases important for local, national, and global public health. Bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic pathogens; mechanisms of disease; host immune response to pathogens.
Instructor: Alex Telionis
Course Description: Dynamics and determinants of infectious diseases and their assessment on the molecular to population continuum in a systems-based approach. Infectious disease transmission mechanisms; population susceptibilities; environmental, social, cultural, and economic contributors to infectious disease propagation; detection and surveillance; geographic information systems; epidemiologic study design; and infectious disease modeling.
Instructor: Andrea Bertke and Sam Rodgers
Course Description: Assessment, policies, and procedures for control and prevention of infectious diseases in communities and populations. Sources, transmission mode, and local community to international dissemination of infectious disease agents; antimicrobial and chemical resistance; vaccine development, safety, and coverage; community and hospital-based needs and interventions; and regulatory frameworks.
Infectious Disease Careers
- Epidemiologist
- Infection Preventionist
- Disease Intervention Specialist
- Infectious Disease Testing Coordinator
Public health efforts to combat infectious disease include collecting data about the symptoms people report and the diagnoses they receive, watching for unusual cases, and investigating outbreaks. When an outbreak occurs, public health infectious disease officials take action to inform the public, educate physicians, and develop policies and systems to contain the infection.
Example responsibilities:
- Investigating diseases, including collecting and analyzing health data through field research, observation, questionnaires and studies, and reporting findings, which can take the form of meetings or presentations to the public or policy makers.
- Educating and training the community and healthcare workers to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases.
- Applying knowledge of how and why communicable diseases spread to make recommendations on containment and treatment.