Download Applied Communicable Disease Control

Module Specification
An online version of this specification is available to prospective students at
http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/currentstudents/studentinformation/msc_module_handbook/section3_moduledescript/in
dex.html
GENERAL INFORMATION
Module name
Applied Communicable Disease Control
Module code
1454
Module Organiser
Will Nutland
Contact email
[email protected]
Home Faculty
Faculty of Public Health & Policy
Level
This module is at Level 7 (postgraduate Masters ‘M’ level) of the QAA
Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales & Northern
Ireland (FHEQ).
Credit
LSHTM award 15 credits on successful completion of this module.
Accreditation
Not currently accredited by any other body.
Keywords
Communicable diseases, viral, HIV/AIDS, bacterial, TB, zoonotic diseases,
parasitic, vulnerable groups, sexual & reproductive health, health in
emergencies, outbreaks, health systems, disease prevention & control, health
policy, tropical medicine, behavioural aspects, sexuality, globalisation, values/
human rights/(bio)ethics, health legislation, disease vectors, pathogens, food,
water, sanitation, climate, epidemiology, planning and programming, teaching,
communication, team-work, management /leadership, local / regional,
international / global, rural, urban.
AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND AUDIENCE
Overall aim
To explore the core knowledge & skills necessary for the application of
communicable disease control activities in a variety of settings & populations.
Intended learning
outcomes
By the end of this module, students should be able to:
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Differentiate the key mechanisms of communicable disease transmission,
and to propose realistic public health prevention & control strategies;
Apply and evaluate the principles of surveillance and the characteristics of
different surveillance systems, their strengths and weaknesses, their
usefulness, and their application to disease control;
Evaluate policies and programmes used in the prevention and control of
important infectious diseases, and the issues involved in their
implementation and evaluation;
Apply epidemiological methods to the investigation and management of
outbreaks;
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Target audience
Examine the issues involved in managing and evaluating vaccination
programmes;
Question the appropriateness of standard communicable disease control
strategies for vulnerable, marginalised, and at-risk populations, and to
propose alternative strategies;
Evaluate communicable disease control strategies using ethical
frameworks;
Design communicable disease control strategies suited to the student’s own
country or work situation.
This module is designed for students who wish to practise, have some
responsibility for, or would like to enrich their knowledge of communicable
disease control practice. As this module is centered on the application of core
principles and practices, it should be relevant and interesting to a wide
audience of students from different academic and experiential backgrounds.
CONTENT
Session content
This highly interactive module seeks to prepare students for the practice of
communicable disease control through a variety of teaching and learning
strategies. Students will first be presented to the core concepts of
communicable disease control (CDC) through a series of lectures and
interactive seminars. Topics include:
 Surveillance;
 Epidemiology;
 Vaccinology;
 Respiratory transmission;
 Faecal-oral transmission;
 Blood-borne transmission;
 Blood & body fluid transmission;
 Vector-borne transmission;
 Marginalised & at-risk populations;
 Public health communications;
 Ethics of disease control.
(above list is subject to alteration)
In addition to the lectures & seminars, students will work in small problembased learning groups with a staff facilitator throughout the module. Each
group will work on an emerging & realistic CDC scenario. The groups will be
tasked with applying material taught in the module, and identifying alternative
sources of information to plan strategies for resolving the problem-scenario
presented.
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TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT
Study resources
provided or required
Students will be provided with a hard-copy reader that will include many of the
core readings for this module. Additional readings will be made available
through the library. While there are no required books for this module, there is
one ‘highly recommended’ text, and two ‘recommended’ texts for the students
to consider:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Noah, N. Controlling Communicable Disease. Maidenhead: Open University
Press; 2009.
RECOMMENDED:
Nelson, KE, Williams, CM. Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory & Practice.
Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett; 2007.
Heymann, DL (Ed). Control of Communicable Diseases Manual 19th Ed.
American Public Health Association: Washington, DC; 2008.
Teaching and learning
methods
Teaching will be carried out by means of lectures, seminars, and problembased learning (PBL) sessions. Some of the lectures and seminars will be
facilitated by external CDC experts to allow students the opportunity to be
exposed to a diversity of perspectives. PBL sessions will take place in small
groups, which will be led by a facilitator from LSHTM. The emphasis in PBL
sessions will be on working through a realistic outbreak scenario as a small
group, and applying core themes explored across the module, in order to
realistically resolve the presented problem scenario. There is a significant focus
on self-directed learning in this module. This said, the lectures and seminars
are designed to complement the weekly topics explored in the PBL sessions. It
is expected that students will draw on a number of resources to enrich their
own learning, including subject experts / clinicians, academic literature, and
module reading.
Assessment details
Individual assignment (70%)
The PBL sessions will explore a realistic outbreak scenario, with structured
evolutions over a four-week period. At the end of the PBL sessions, students
will be asked to complete an individual outbreak report of 1,500 words, which
summarises the actions taken by the group, with rationale, reflections and
recommendations presented. Students will be evaluated on their critical
evaluation of the outbreak, drawing on the core themes and topics presented
throughout the module.
CDC intervention project (30%)
Each of the PBL groups will be responsible for identifying a communicable
disease control issue / gap (e.g. hand-washing, food storage, sexual health,
infection control in lectures) at the LSHTM. The groups will have to undertake
some background research related to their selected issue, and proposed a
control strategy with accompanying support materials (e.g. pamphlets, posters)
for this intervention. Each group will present a display at a CDC fair, which the
entire LSHTM community will be invited to attend. A panel of assessors will
evaluate the group’s efforts on the day of the fair.
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Non-Assessed criteria
As this module builds on sequential core concepts presented in PBL sessions,
seminars and lectures, students are required to commit to full participation in
all sessions.
For students who are required to re-sit, or granted a deferral or new attempt,
the task will be a take-home exam in which the student will be given an original
outbreak scenario, which is different from the scenario discussed in the
problem-based learning session. The student will have to answer a series of
questions related to the scenario, and develop appropriate strategies related to
the control of this outbreak. The student will be allowed to use both module
and external reference resources in order to complete this task.
Assessment dates
Assessment(s) will take place or be due on:
1. 23 March 2016 (CDC Fair);
2. 25 March 2015 (Individual assignment).
For students who are required to re-sit, or granted a deferral or new attempt,
the next assessment date(s)/deadline(s) will be during the School’s standard
re-sit period in September 2015. The re-sit assignment will consist of a takehome examination worth 100% of the final grade for students who are resitting all of the evaluative components, or equalling the percentage of the
specific assignment missed.
Language of study and
assessment
English (please see ‘English language requirements’ below regarding the
standard required for entry).
TIMING AND MODE OF STUDY
Duration
The module runs for 5 weeks at 2.5 days per week; this module runs between
Monday morning and Wednesday lunchtime.
Dates
For 2014-15, the module will start on Monday 23 February 2015 and finish on
Wednesday 25 March 2015.
Timetable slot
The module runs in LSHTM timetable slot D1.
Mode of Study
The module is taught face-to-face in London. Both full-time and part-time
students follow the same schedule. For full-time students, other LSHTM
modules are available in the other half of the week for the C and D slots.
Learning time
The notional learning time for the module totals 150 hours, consisting of:
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Contact time ≈ 21 hours
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Directed self-study ≈ 12 hours
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Self-directed learning ≈ 87 hours
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Assessment, review and revision ≈ 30 hours
APPLICATION, ADMISSION AND FEES
Pre-requisites
This module is suitable for all MSc students.
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English language
requirements
A strong command of the English language is necessary to benefit from
studying the module. Applicants whose first language is not English or whose
prior university studies have not been conducted wholly in English must fulfil
LSHTM’s English language requirements, with an acceptable score in an
approved test taken in the two years prior to entry. Applicants may be asked to
take a test even if the standard conditions have been met.
Student numbers
Student numbers are typically 40 per year; numbers may be capped due to
limitations in facilities or staffing.
Student selection
Preference will be given to LSHTM MSc students and LSHTM research degree
students. Other applicants meeting the entry criteria will usually be offered a
place in the order applications are received, until any cap on numbers is
reached. Applicants may be placed on a waiting list and given priority the next
time the module is run.
Full Registration (full participation) by LSHTM research degree students is
required for this module.
Fees
For registered LSHTM MSc students, fees for the module are included within
MSc fees (given on individual course prospectus pages).
If registering specifically for this module, as a stand-alone short course,
individual module fees will apply.
Tuition fees must be paid in full before commencing the module, or by any fee
deadline set by the Registry.
Scholarships
Scholarships are not available for individual modules. Some potential sources
of funding are detailed on the LSHTM website.
Admission deadlines
For 2015-16:
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For registered LSHTM MSc students, the module choice deadline (for Term
2 and 3 modules) is Friday 20 November 2015.

If registering specifically for this module, applications may be made at any
time but, as places are limited, applications ahead of the MSc deadline are
strongly advised. All applications should be submitted at the latest 8 weeks
prior to the start of the module. Formal registration will take place on the
morning of the first day of the module.
ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT
This module specification applies for the academic year 2015-16
Last revised 23 July 2012 by Greg Thomas-Reilly; 20 July 2015 minor updates by SDB
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Keppel St., London WC1E 7HT.
www.lshtm.ac.uk
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