This course is focused on the dynamic nature of infectious diseases, which clearly distinguishes infectious disease epidemiology from the epidemiology of other diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and cancer. In addition to the dynamics of specific infections such as HIV, dynamics of genotypes and genes (such as those encoding antimicrobial resistance) and principles of population biology will be addressed.
Modelling has become a valuable tool for infectious disease epidemiology. The principles of modelling will addressed in the basic course and more in-depth in the advanced course. The aim is to provide the participants with the knowledge to evaluate and judge infectious disease epidemiology research and data analysis and to give sufficient scientific and methodological background to actively participate in clinical and epidemiological studies. Topics are: transmission dynamics, basic reproduction ratio, deterministic and stochastic models, heterogeneity, statistical inference, population biology and vaccination.
