Short Courses

Short Courses

In addition to the regular curriculum, we also offer short courses in basic applied epidemiology on an ad-hoc basis.

Course description

Typically, the course consists of two one week workshops separated by a two to four month period to allow participants to complete a field project assignment at their workplace under the supervision of the trainers. The participants present their field assignments in the second week workshop. The course can be tailored to meet the requirements of the requesting institution.

Course goals
Upon completion of the course, the participant will be able to:

• Understand the basic principles of: descriptive epidemiology, analytic epidemiology, descriptive biostatistics, public health surveillance and epidemiological investigations.
• Use basic epidemiological skills to design and conduct a simple field project
• Gain experience in conducting a simple epidemiologic investigation
• Come up with practical recommendations from the findings of an epidemiologic investigation
• Manage and analyze health data using statistical software
• Develop communication skills for dissemination of findings of epidemiological investigations
• Understand the role of the laboratory in public health

Target audience
Public health professionals from National and Provincial Departments of Health, Local Municipality, and Metro City Councils who are involved in communicable diseases control, disease surveillance, outbreak investigations and data management.