Global Communicable and Non-Communicable Disease:

What makes us ill, what makes us die, and why

Module overview 

This module provides students with a broad overview of the state of the world’s health today.  We explore how health and disease differ  across the countries and regions of the world, why inequalities are so stark, and how are they changing over time.  We also address the challenges of improving health status and reducing the burden of disease across populations, especially the most vulnerable, through innovative and affordable approaches, appropriate to the setting. 

You will learn how to use different sources of information to explore the epidemiology of the burden of disease globally. There will be a focus on key risk factors and proximal and distal determinants of disease. These include the social, political and economic determinants of disease. You will gain insight into the difficulties in obtaining accurate information about disease burden, especially in low-income countries.   We will introduce the double burden of communicable and non-communicable disease, disease prevention and control, as well as the challenges of changing disease patterns and multimorbidity on  health systems and healthcare delivery. 

At the end of this module, students should be able to:

Understand how we obtain information on disease burden and why we should treat such information with some scepticism.
	Describe the geographic distribution of the major causes of death and disease, globally, as well as the proximal and distal determinants.
	Understand the changing patterns of infectious disease burden across the world today.
	Understand the measures which can be taken to address the burden of disease across a range of high-, middle- and low-income settings
	Appraise how health systems and policies can tackle the challenge of the dual burden of disease, and changes in patterns of disease in high, middle and low income settings.
	Facilitate your development of important skills, including critical analysis, qualitative and quantitative research methods and literature review.
This module is optional to students on the iBSc in Global Health and is also available to undergraduate students from other programmes/faculties.