| Title: |
Control Strategies for Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases |
| Keywords: |
Non-communicable diseases
Disease prevention, control and elimination
Communicable diseases
|
| Country: |
Netherlands
|
| Institution: |
The Netherlands - Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam
|
| Course coordinator: |
M. Abdelwahab
|
| Date start: |
2024-04-08 |
| Date end: |
2024-04-30 |
| About duration and dates: |
3 weeks, (including Easter and King’s Day: national holidays) |
| Classification: |
advanced optional
|
| Mode of delivery: |
Face to face
|
Course location:
Royal Tropical Institute
KIT Health and Education
PO Box 95001, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31-20-5688256
Website: www.kit.nl
tropEd representative: Lisanne Gerstel L.Gerstel@kit.nl |
|
| ECTS credit points: |
4.5 ECTS credits
|
SIT:
135 Student Investment Hours
Contact hours: 54 hours (including 3 hours field visit, and 2 hours open book exam)
Self-study hours: 81 hours
(including 4 hrs through e-learning) |
|
| Language: |
English
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Description:
At the end of the module the student should be able to:
●compare and contrast the approaches to the control of communicable diseases (CDs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in relation to health promotion and health advocacy and relevant levels of prevention .
●analyse and critically discuss strengths and weaknesses of specific disease control programmes or strategies (CDs & NCDs) with a special focus on health equity. .
●use evidence to formulate and clearly communicate context-appropriate strategies to control one or more CDs and/or NCDs |
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Assessment Procedures:
The student is required to attend at least 90% of the face to face sessions, complete the online quizzes and participate in the group work.
The final mark is based on three assessments:
● Written paper (news release for general public on an NCD, 500 words): 50% (LO1 and LO3)
● Constructive written feedback to peers on the news release: 20% (LO3 mostly)
● Final online examination: this 2hr examination is open book using multiple choice and short answer questions: (30%) (LO1 and LO2)
Please note that from the academic year 2022-2023, the final mark will be based on three assessments:
● Written paper (news release for general public on an NCD, 500 words): 40% (LO1 and LO3)
● Constructive written feedback to peers on the news release: 20%(LO3 mostly)
● Final online examination: this 2hr examination is open book using multiple choice and short answer questions: (40%)(LO1 and LO2)
Students have to get a pass mark (6 out of 10 or higher) in the news release assignment in order to complete the course requirements. Students receive feedback for these examinations in the form of a personal feedback sheet (news release and written paper) and directly online (after the open book exam the correct answers will be displayed).
Students who fail have the right to one resit of the paper and/or the final examination. The resit exam is to be organised within 8 weeks of the last exam. |
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Content:
This module will use disease control strategies for specific diseases as a starting point. These diseases are selected based on specific target populations (youth, elderly, displaced populations), duration of the disease (chronic, acute), focus on different control strategies (primary, secondary, tertiary prevention).
The first part of the course has an emphasis on NCDs, the second part more on CDs. Based on these disease-focused examples, similarities and differences between approaches to control strategies for communicable and non-communicable diseases will be discussed. (LO1, LO2)
Each session will offer some refresher on basic concepts like global health trends, vulnerable populations, behavioural risk factors, transmission patterns, epidemic vs. endemic, infection vs.disease, etc. (LO1)
Some sessions will involve discussions of screening/case finding and case management, vaccination, environmental interventions, health promotion. Others will be used to discuss the role of monitoring & evaluation, surveillance, advocacy, legislation/regulation, the health system perspective and policy context (LO2).
A news release training is organised to learn specific skills for communication to the public in addition to giving feedback to peers (LO3).
Towards the end of the module, sessions focus more on overarching issues that are essential to the formulation of strategies, such as human rights perspectives, priority setting between diseases (LO3), advocacy for different control programmes, analysis and design of control programs both at the level of health services and intersectorally, for both CDs & NCDs.
The example list of session names below gives some idea of the link between the disease and the LOs, however each session will cover various learning objectives.
LU 1: Introduction to the course and disease control strategies and health promotion
LU1 continued: Health promotion
LU 2: Advocacy and Communication skills: News release training
LU 3: Monitoring and Evaluation
LU 4: Nutrition, lifecycle approach, influence transition on policy making
LU 5: Prevention and control of Cardiovascular diseases: linking prevention strategies based on risk factors to care and treatment
LU 6: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) focus: integration in broader strategies
LU 7: Emerging diseases; Dengue, COVID and One Health
LU 8: Vector borne disease Malaria: focus role global initiatives, context specific strategies
LU 9: Tuberculosis, role community, epidemiological perspectives and M&E, drug resistance, role of laboratories
LU 10: Chronic disease: example Cancer, focus: surveillance and screening
LU 11: Mental Health: Focus: stigmatised diseases, context of conflict, HS context
LU 12: Journal Club: Global Health ethics
LU 13: Refugee health interventions: rational priority setting, planning for subpopulations, human rights perspectives
LU 14: Expanded programme on Immunisation
LU 15: Emerging infections
LU17: Advocacy and community participation
LU19: Intersectoral strategies, SDG3 action plan |
|
Methods:
A great variety of learning methods are used, most importantly:
● Interactive lectures reflecting on students’ own experiences, case studies (60hrs), written assignments
● Peer feedback (online in the virtual learning environment)
● Group work (a.o. construction of a wiki online)
● Quizzes (online)
● Background reading materials
The educational approach is based on the following principles:
● Takes the knowledge and (working) experience of the participants as a starting point
● Is problem-oriented and is focused on the practical application of the course content
● Is competency based and aims at improving the competencies of participants to implement and evaluate context-specific approaches to address health problems. |
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Prerequisites:
● Academic training or a professional qualification in a relevant field
● Work experience in a related area, including experience in management or planning in Low and Middle Income Countries
● the participant should be able to use a computer and have a stable internet connection (use own email and the web). They should have a working-level understanding of Microsoft Office software (e.g. Word, PowerPoint) and Adobe (PDF). Students will be introduced to the e-learning platform and Zoom software.
● Proficiency in spoken and written English (TOEFL 550 or academic IELTS 6.0) |
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Attendance:
Maximum number of students: 45
Maximum number of tropEd students: 5 |
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Selection:
First come first served principle |
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|
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Scholarships:
Scholarships are available through Nuffic:
specifically: https://www.kit.nl/study/orange-knowledge-programme/
Full list of possible grants: https://www.kit.nl/study/scholarship-information/ |
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Major changes since initial accreditation:
Students get more information on the importance of feedback, examples on good and less good feedback, and they get after they have given the first round of peer feedback, a ‘feedback on the feedback’ session with tips on how to do even better.
Emphasis on specific health problems is further decreased to save classroom time as well as give room to place emphasis on the broader principles of disease control in the introductory session, online exercises and tutorial.
Students cannot any more compensate for not passing the written assignment with the other assignment. To complete the course, students should pass the news release assignment with a mark of 6.0 out of 10 or more. |
|
Student evaluation:
The module ran twice since the last accreditation.
Sessions were all very well evaluated, as well as the training/practice on the news release. Teachers were of high quality.
Some students were losing sight of the broader principles of strategies for disease control while focusing too much on specific diseases.
Students were complaining of the high load of study and readings. |
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Lessons learned:
The diversity of learning methods in this module allows different types of learners with various backgrounds to have an effective learning experience, while having ample opportunity to share their knowledge and experience. Some students found it difficult to give good feedback and needed more support on this. Furthermore we have learned to:
● depend on an even larger variety of preparation materials and learning activities.(stimulated by the shift to distance based modes of delivery during COVID)
● focus on application of broad disease control strategies on different diseases and health issues via weekly reflective meetings.
● use examples from more diverse parts of the world including high income countries. |
|
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tropEd accreditation:
Accreditation in 2004; re-accredited in 2007 and in October 2011, February 2016, Yogyakarta, February 2017 Barcelona, February 2020, Re-accredited Feb GA 2022. |
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Remarks:
Disease control refers to a broad package of strategies for controlling diseases, from primary prevention, health promotion, and health legislation to screening for early detection, treatment and rehabilitation.
This course is designed to help you retain the strengths of your disease control programmes while considering more integrated and sector-wide approaches.
This course can be followed as a stand-alone course or as part of the Master in International Health or the Master in Public Health program. |
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| Email Address: |
courses@kit.nl |
| Date Of Record Creation: |
2012-01-14 09:17:10 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Of Record Release: |
2012-01-14 15:27:55 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Record Checked: |
2022-05-13 (W3C-DTF) |
| Date Last Modified: |
2024-01-12 18:31:46 (W3C-DTF) |
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