Principles Of Community Health And Epidemiology

This course explains the principles governing management of disease and epidemic outbreaks in communities, and the factors which influence disease transmission among individuals and communities. The topics covered includes; Principles of statistics, Principles of Community Health, General Principles of Community Health, Demography Including Determinants and Consequences of Population Growth,

Measurement of Health and Counting of Disease, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, including the

Concept and Pillars of Primary Health Care (PHC), Environmental Sanitation, Occupational Health, Public Health Legislation, The Health of Refugees and Internally Displaced People, Disaster Preparedness and Response, Community Drug Use and Principles of Epidemiology. 

COURSE JUSTIFICATION/RATIONALE  

This is one of the courses intended to prepare the students for Community Based Education, Research, Management and Services (COBERMS) courses, which come later in the programme by providing the necessary knowledge in general principles of community health. The second part of the course is intended to acquaint the student with determinants of health, ill health and death, and the statistical measures of health, ill- health and death in a community. It prepares the students for application of the epidemiological principles during fieldwork, which comes later. 

COURSE AIM  

The aim of this course is to develop the student’s knowledge and understanding of principles of epidemiology and state the epidemiologic principles in medical sciences. The course explains the principles governing management of disease and epidemic outbreaks in communities, and the factors which influence disease transmission among individuals and communities.  

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES   

At the end of the course, students will be able to: 

1. Explain disease prevention and health promotion methods 
   
2. Describe community health, disaster preparedness, response and community drug use 
   
3. Outline standard health policies with specific examples 
   
4. Describe the statistical measures of health, diseases and death for communities, environmental, psychosocial and economic determinants of health and disease 
   
5. Use health and socio- economic indicators to describe the health status of communities 
   
6. Describe the factors which influence disease transmission among individuals and communities