This is a course on the surveillance of foodborne and waterborne diseases designed for professionals interested in the safety of food and water. The course describes how surveillance is used to improve public health policy and practice in ways that contribute to the safety of our food and water. We focus on the microorganisms and chemical agents responsible for food and water-transmitted diseases. We study the diseases they cause, the pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, reservoirs, modes of transmission, and epidemiology. The transport, survival, and fate of pathogens in the environment, the concept of indicator organisms as surrogates for pathogens, and the removal and inactivation of pathogens and indicators by water and wastewater treatment processes will be analyzed.
 

This course is a comprehensive study on public health surveillance and includes discussions of the history and planning considerations, data sources and collection, analysis and interpretation, communication, evaluation, ethical and legal issues, state and local issues, and issues in developing countries as concerns public health surveillance.
 

This basic two-week course in epidemiology is directed at public health professionals and includes discussions of applied epidemiology and biostatistics, public health surveillance, field investigations, hands-on computer training using Epi-Info, and selected prevalent diseases.  Epidemiologic case studies are worked on in the classroom.
 

Contact person:  Pia Valeriano, MBA

Phone:(404)727-3485; Fax:(404)727-4590; Email:pvaleri@emory.edu

Website: http://www.sph.emory.edu/EPICOURSES