Communicable Disease, Emergence, Detection and Response Module

This module addresses the following issues:

• Introduction to communicable diseases - patterns of infection; infectious disease threats, surveillance systems and epidemiological investigation
• Contact diseases - skin and eye conditions; sexually transmitted diseases; HIV/AIDS; malaria; diseases spread through faeco-oral route; air-borne diseases; Tuberculosis, hepatitis viruses, hospital acquired infection
• Global patient safety challenge - sterilization and cross infection control; trends, / prevention and control measures; effectiveness of a number of key national disease control programmes, for example: working on the efficacy, safety and uptake of vaccines in routine use; the uptake and effectiveness of national screening, antibiotic use and misuse
• Role of NGO, WHO, policy and government targets, surveillance of targets. Service planning; contingency, responsibility, inequality, public perception of threat, organizational responsiveness. Role of the media, UK infection control and management of public health threats