Handbook

This is a PLuS Alliance course offered through UNSW. Students at UNSW, Arizona State University and Kings College London who are in a PLuS Alliance program can enrol into this course.

Outbreak investigation is a central aspect of field epidemiology and infectious diseases intelligence and surveillance underpins outbreak identification, response and control. The focus of this course is on understanding routine and unusual disease outbreaks and the application of methods for their detection and investigation and control in resource limited and developed settings. The course uses case studies to teach epidemiologic disease pattern recognition, identification of aberrant patterns, and interpretation of epidemic and surveillance data to inform outbreak investigation and disease control. The course explores a number of outbreaks from around the world in case studies, lectures, discussion forums, webinars and readings to teach principles of outbreak detection, verification, investigation, communication and control. You will learn about outbreak data analysis and interpretation, outbreaks in vulnerable populations as well as the role of the laboratory. An overview of field epidemiology methods and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases will also be provided. Case studies include salmonella, E. coli, enterovirus, hepatitis, avian influenza, MERS coronavirus, Ebola outbreaks and COVID-19.