Global Health: Ebola, COVID, and Beyond

Global Health: Ebola, COVID, and Beyond

This introductory course, first delivered in September 2016, explores how multidisciplinary teams can work more effectively together to address global health needs.

Whether you seek a career in international health or medicine, volunteer to serve those less fortunate, or work in an institutional setting such as a clinic, hospital, or public health agency, it is important to understand the sources and movement of diseases.

The world continues to grow smaller, with international travel, a global economy, and a changing environment contributing to the emergence of new diseases and the spread of existing ones. Understanding these connections -- and how they impact the farthest reaches of the globe – is becoming an essential skill in international development, humanitarian assistance, business and commerce, and at all levels of healthcare.

The 2003 SARS outbreak and the 2013-2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa focused the world’s attention on global health. A Toronto medical center and Dallas hospital were far removed from the outbreaks of SARS in China and Ebola in Guinea, yet those diseases arrived and created crises within these facilities and beyond. COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 that disrupted global social and economic order and highlighted the importance of joint public health and humanitarian efforts for containment and knowledge exchange again. Research has shown that health security contributes to civil order, economic growth, and stable governments. It has also demonstrated that every nation bears the economic and human burden of disease, illness, and injury.