Pathobiology of Emerging Infectious Disease

Catalog description

This course examines the biology of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The course includes viral, bacterial, and eukaryotic pathogens causing serious mortality and morbidity. Major course topics include a historical perspective on diseases; microbiology and immunology of each class of pathogen; processes of evolutionary change in pathogens; public health efforts to detect, monitor, respond to, and/or eliminate diseases from local to international scales; zoonotic disease and host jumps; and the One Health integration of human, animal and environmental health. Students will complete quizzes, discussions, and a research project based in primary literature reporting on a current or classical infectious disease. Case studies will include, but are not limited to, influenza, HIV/AIDS, smallpox, West Nile virus, polio, dengue, tuberculosis, and malaria. Depending on class size, students may complete additional research projects or scenarios. Students with interests in disease and health from majors in many colleges may wish to take this course.