Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in Public Health Practice

Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases in Public Health Practice is a readable, lively introduction to the topic. Devoted specifically to the methods required to study infectious disease, this book is an ideal introduction that provides students with the requisite skills to conduct, evaluate, and understand the field of infectious disease epidemiology.

The book is organized in two sections, Foundations, and Diseases and Agents. Foundations covers history of the practice, study designs and surveillance, microbiology concepts; immunologic concepts, computer-based tools; vaccines, and nosocomial (hospital-based) infections.

Part two, Diseases and Agents, is organized around key categories of infectious diseases, including: airborne, diarrheal, transmitted via blood and bodily fluid; vector-borne; and helminthic.

Each chapter interweaves historical case studies as they relate to each specific topic. These vignettes will help to illuminate the present (i.e., 21^st century) practice of infectious disease epidemiology. Each chapter will begin with an overview of the key concepts that will follow. Each chapter will end with approximately a dozen study questions to assist students with their appreciation of the material. Each chapter will also include a selected bibliography to provide sources for further reading. Chapters, as appropriate, will include mathematical problems for hand-calculation as well as resources for infectious disease epidemiology computer-applications.  The text will include a range of appropriate teaching aids, e.g., teachers’ manual, students’ study guide (with solutions to selected mathematical problems in the text), and guided exercises.

Part One: Foundations

 1: Infectious Disease in Historical Perspective

• Early Concepts in Infectious Diseases and Epidemic Diseases
• Germ Theory and Disease Investigation  in the 19^th Century (John Snow/Cholera, Hinle-Coch Postulates)
• Beginning of Basic Public Health Measures (Sanitation, Vaccines, Antibiotics)
• Post-WW II Epidemiologic Transition (shift from mortality due to infection to chronic/behavioral)
• Emerging Diseases in Developing Countries

2: Study Designs and Surveillance

• Review of Study Designs (case studies, ecological studies, case control studies, cohort studies, experimental studies)
• Disease Surveillance Methods (sources of data)

3: Microbiology of Infectious Disease

• Microbiological tools for infectious disease epidemiology
• Basic laboratory techniques (microscopic, DNA/RNA)

4: Immunologic Concepts: Host-Pathogen Interactions

• Different types of host-immune response
• Antigens
• Antibodies
• Immunosuppression (role in infectious disease)

5: Computer-Based Tools

• Mathematical modeling of infectious disease outbreaks
• Geographic information systems

6: Vaccine Intervention

• Development of vaccines for primary prevention of disease (diphtheria, typhoid, polio, measles, mumps)
• Future/Emerging vaccines (malaria, rotovirus)

7: Nosocomial Infections

• Community-based infections (eg, physician’s office)
• Institutionally-based infections   (eg, hospital)
• Antibiotic resistance

Part Two: Diseases and Agents

8: Airborne Infectious Disease

Influenza

• Epidemiologic and demographic Historical significance of influenza pandemics
• Typical aetiologies
• Influenza epidemiology and the significance of antigenic shift/drift 
• Influenza:  Patterns of mortality and morbidity

Acute Respiratory Infections

• Typical aetiologies
• Host Risk factors

Measles

• Historical perspectives prior to introduction of vaccines
• Rationale of vaccine use for measles
• Emerging concerns about vaccine-associated sequelae

9: Diarrheal and Gastrointestinal Disease

Viral Etiology

• Rotavirus, etc
• Emerging Rotaviral vaccines

Bacterial Etiology

• E. coli
• Vibrio cholerae
• Other bacterial pathogens

Parasitic Etiology

• Entamoeba histolytica
• Necator americanus
• Giardia lambliae

10: Disease Transmitted via Blood and Bodily Fluids

HIV and AIDS 

• AIDS in historical perspective
• Immune reponse to the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Opportunistic Infections associated with AIDS

Viral Hepatitis

Non-HIV STDs

11: Vector-Borne Disease

• Mosquito-Borne (e.g., malaria, Yellow Fever, West Nile etc.)
• Tick-Borne (e.g., RMSF, Lyme Disease, etc.)
• Other Arthropod Vectors

12: Helminthic Disease

• Hookworm
• Disease
• Schistosomiasis
• Other Geohelminthes