Parallel Plagues: Infectious Diseases and their Control in Peru and The United States

Catalog description

Infectious agents continue to emerge, killing and harming humans and animals with unrelenting regularity. The emergence and control of these agents are, in some ways, remarkably different in different geographies. In other ways the patterns and consequences of infectious agents are very similar. The course will be structured around a series of pairings of infectious disease problems that affect Peru and the United States. Some pairings will be in terms of the agents themselves; others will be more thematic. In each case we will trace two lines of inquiry, one in each country, but always with an eye to the harmonics--where these lines resonate--even if they do not interact. The primary goal of the course is to investigate the historical, political and economic forces driving infectious disease in Peru and the US. A co-primary goal is to bring students and faculty from Penn and our partner institutions in Peru, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, to work their way through topics in infectious disease control, which are inherently challenging. The course will be taught in English but a workable knowledge of Spanish will be helpful.