
Join the Center for Global Health Security and Diplomacy in exploring infectious disease threats and global health security as a 21st-century imperative, through practical training and diplomatic action.
Explore the science of infectious diseases, distinguishing communicable and non-communicable diseases, pathogens, and the reproduction number, while tracing historic pandemics from plague to HIV/AIDS.
Explore how pandemics differ from epidemics and endemics, and how globalization, urbanization, antimicrobial resistance, and zoonotic spillover drive infectious disease risk worldwide.
Explore pandemics in the 21st century, from SARS to Covid-19, examining viral biology, global travel, and coordinated health security responses, and their social, economic, and policy impacts.
Explore how vaccines create herd immunity to halt disease spread and protect vulnerable populations. Examine vaccine types and role in global health security and vaccine diplomacy for sustainable development goals.
Explore the sustainable development goals' health focus from MDGs to the SDGs, including SDG three on health and wellbeing, targets, indicators, and national implementation considerations.
Explore why sustainable development goals matter and how nations implement and monitor them, balancing economic, ecological, and social factors through national indicators and policies.
Explore how infectious diseases affect global health security and development, highlight economic costs, and show why rapid, global coordination is essential to detect, respond to, and prevent outbreaks.
pandemics slow the sdgs progress by straining public health systems, exposing infrastructure gaps, and driving global action to strengthen public health and global health security across sectors.
Global Health Security is a dynamic field due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, through this course students will learn about the science behind infectious diseases and how pandemics occur. They will also gain understanding of the importance of sustainable development and identify why health is important to sustainable development. Furthermore, this course will enable the understanding how pandemics affect the globe and sets back progress, in relation to global targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
Infectious diseases were the biggest contributor to human morbidity until recent times when NCDs (non- communicable disease) exceeded it. However, it still accounts for a high rate of mortality in some parts of the world. Globalization has not helped with decreasing the transmission of infectious diseases, in fact globalization is causing profound changes in the burden of infectious diseases in certain populations.
Sustainable Development - one aspect addressing the relationship between global health security, infectious disease, and globalization - ensures development for the current generation without compromising the needs of the future generations. Through the SDGs countries are working together to ensure that certain impediments to development are eliminated so that everyone can enjoy access to equal opportunities and resources. Thus, this course will also inform students on the main points of the Sustainable Development Goals, their importance, and challenges with their implementation.