Global Health News

Dates: May 1-5. 2017
Location: UBC Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, Room 3208 2405 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver BC

The main purpose of this tropical medicine course is to train health professionals to learn an  approach to preventing, diagnosing, evaluating, treating and managing people with tropical diseases. This course is the first of its kind in Western Canada.  Over 150 physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals have successfully completed this course.

Course objectives

Through didactic lectures, interactive problem-solving discussions and practical laboratory teaching, attendees will learn:

• a clinical approach to the evaluation and management of tropical diseases;
• practical laboratory skills, with a focus on the identification of parasites important for the diagnosis of tropical disease;
• public health principles and applications including outbreak management.

The course emphasizes three broad areas: (1) Clinical Tropical Medicine; (2) Parasitology; (3) Public Health. Participants will gain knowledge and skills in:

Clinical Tropical Medicine

• Understanding of epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, complications of major tropical diseases;
• A clinical approach to evaluating patients presenting with diseases acquired in the tropics;
• Skills in the diagnosis and treatment of important tropical diseases.
• Emphasis will be placed on communicable tropical diseases with large global burden of disease.

Parasitology

• Understanding of the lifecycles of clinically important parasites with respect to transmission and control;
• Understanding of the development of parasites within the human body and the corresponding clinical symptoms and pathology;
• Microscopy skills to diagnose various blood and gastrointestinal parasites.

Public Health 

• Understanding of tools for health assessment and surveillance in the developing world;
• Understand the importance of identifying and working with stakeholders and governments overseas;
• Review an approach to outbreak investigation;
• General approach to preventing and controlling infections within a community using modalities such as immunization and environmental health intervention;
• Practice in application of community infection control through problem solving exercises.

New!

Professors Phaik Yeong Cheah and Nick Day of the University of Oxford will join the 2017 course faculty. Please see details in the course brochure.

Target Audience

• physicians, public health practitioners, nurses and other healthcare workers who intend to practice in the tropics, resource-limited settings or who require an update on infectious, parasitic and other major tropical diseases

For more information please visit the course website.