Prevention and Public Health Surveillance (PHCM2005)

Disease surveillance and population health monitoring represents one of the most important tools for public health, for early disease detection and prevention, and the monitoring and evaluation. Early detection of and rapid response to a public health threat has huge potential to save lives and costs from preventing hospitalizations and deaths. This course provides an overview of different types of surveillance systems and the sources of data that are used in such systems. Students learn to assess challenges and limitations associated with different types of public health surveillance systems and develop the skills to examine the tools and approaches that can be used to improve the effectiveness of public health surveillance systems. The course looks at principles of disease prevention more broadly. Public health prevention measures are discussed including immunisation and screening, using case studies for both communicable and non-communicable diseases. The role of epidemiological and social factors is also considered.

This is a core course in the Bachelor of International Public Health (3880) comprising 6 units of credit towards the total required for completion of the study program.