MSc Occupational Medicine / Course details

This unit covers the key principles of communicable disease control. This unit has been designed to be relevant and interesting to all students but may have particular relevance to clinicians (including intercalating medical students), researchers and/or those currently in public health roles in all countries.

The unit includes essential sections on infectious diseases, disease surveillance, and outbreak management. We will draw on examples of a broad range of important diseases, including tuberculosis, influenza, diarrheal disease, HIV, COVID-19, viral haemorrhagic fevers and other infectious diseases of public health importance. In addition, certain themes will run throughout this unit including the importance of understanding evidence and the importance of application in your own context.

This unit aims for students to gain an understanding of the principles of communicable disease control and their application in a range of situations.

The syllabus for the Communicable Disease Control course includes:

• Disease agents, routes of transmission and host factors  
• Surveillance, international surveillance and regulation  
• Principles of Control Measures  
• Principles of outbreak Investigation  
• Steps of outbreak investigation  
• Modelling infections and modelling epidemics
• Emerging diseases, Epidemics and Pandemics
• Developing Vaccination Programmes and Vaccine Hesitancy
• Towards Elimination-Hepatitis C, HIV and Polio
• Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)  

This course involves working through course notes provided online, linked references and other sources of information. The course notes include relevant case studies and are supported by videos, podcasts and webinars. This is an interactive online course. Students must work through the online course material. Students are encouraged to use the Blackboard discussion boards to ask questions and check their understanding of the course material.

Distance/blended learning students only - Students on this mode of study will have the opportunity to study synchronously with the on-campus students and asynchronously via recorded sessions and online resources.

This is a mandatory course unit for students studying on the on-campus programme, or an optional course unit for students on the web-based learning programme. There will be written materials by the tutors guiding students through the course, illustrated with photographs and figures to illustrate the rich topic areas. Much of the content will be presented through reading, including peer reviewed journals (accessible through the University library), and multimedia, including videos. Students will be directed to a variety of relevant literature each week, but also encouraged to research and explore and find their own sources.  

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled seminars (which will be recorded for those on the web-based option) and online through the discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to use self-reflection to think about the ideas discussed and take part in discussion board activities. Students should work through the unit in a logical sequence. The individual course unit timetables will guide what should be done and when. Participation in the discussion boards is greatly encouraged and can help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for your assessment.

For all students - The majority of the course will be delivered through the virtual learning platform, which will include required and additional reading, self-tests and discussion boards.  

Web-based students - There will be webinars that will be recorded to allow synchronous and asynchronous learning. Web-based students may join webinars live, but it is not mandatory. Recordings will be made of all face-to-face activities and will be made available.

For on campus students - All face-to-face activities are mandatory for all students. Attendance is monitored and an escalation policy is in place for non-attendance. The tutor-led sessions will be recorded and made available for all students as part of good pedagogic practice for accessibility, revision and consolidation. We also have weekly peer-led team study sessions where you will be asked to undertake tasks linked to the course unit materials using the discussion boards.

For all students - In line with guidance from the Office for Students and Quality Assurance Agency, the programme will be augmented by the Programme Director Seminar Series to deliver study skills, written English, academic writing, research skills, critical thinking and understanding arguments, careers and employability skills, revision/assessment/examination skills including time management. 

Recommended reading is available online through the University of Manchester library.

Books

• Donaldson LJ. Donaldsons’ Essential Public Health. Fourth edition. (Rutter PD, ed.). CRC Press; 2018.
• Ghebrehewet S, ed. Health Protection : Principles and Practice. Oxford University Press; 2016.
• Hawker J. Communicable Disease Control and Health Protection Handbook. 4th edition. Wiley-Blackwell; 2019.
• Wilson J. Infection Control in Clinical Practices. Third edition. Elsevier; 2018.

Websites

• Department of Health: Immunisation against Infectious Disease (The green Book online). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book.
• United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UK HSA). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/
• World Health Organization. Available at: http://www.who.int/en/ https://www.who.int/

For further information, please watch this video from our Course Unit Leader.

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact the course unit leader, Anjana Sahu, via email on anjana.sahu@manchester.ac.uk. If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme team via email on shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.