Junior/Senior Colloquium 

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NOTE: This syllabus was for the Fall 1998 semester.

Course: Emerging Infectious Diseases (11:015:420)  
Instructor: Stanley Katz, Dept. of Biochemistry and Microbiology 
Class Meeting Time: Wednesdays, 3rd and 4th periods 
Office Hours:  
 
Course Description: 
      
This very ambitious title covers far more than this course can ever hope to cover. The course will examine those diseases whose vectors are related to food and water, since in reality both these matrices are inseparable. It is the purpose of this colloquium to present an understanding of the current and developing problems, physical, biological, economic, social related to the emerging disease process.

This course is not a discipline driven course in pathogenic microbiology. It is hoped that all students will have a sufficiently general biology/ microbiology background to handle the concepts of transfer of pathogens between species and from the environment to specific species vectors. The course will focus on the overall picture of disease emergence rather than on the mechanism of pathogenesis.

Some of the subjects to be covered are:

  1. The microbes and their relationship to human disease.
  2. So-called new and emerging diseases.
  3. Detection of the microbial pathogen.
  4. Traveler's health -- food, water vectors.
  5. Nosocomial (hospital-related) infections.
  6. Opportunistic infections -- host susceptibility. Antimicrobial drug resistance.
  7. Public, animal, environmental health implications of aquaculture -- animal diseases of public health importance.
  8. Food handling and processing factors -- consumer lifestyles.
  9. Food safety and HAACP concepts.
  10. Epidemiology and control of foodborne disease.
  11. Foodborne illness -- future implications.

Some of the pathogens that will be used as examples or in a case history mode are E. coli 0157-H7, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria monocyto-genes, Vibrio spp., Cyclospora, Giardia, "mad cow disease" (prions).

The following references will be useful to the class; some will be essential.

Emerging Infectious Disease - This is a quarterly journal published by the CDC and can be found on the internet.

Bad Bug Book - This is a handbook of foodborne pathogens. This can be found on line at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html

The Coming Plague - Laurie Garrett. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, NY.

Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach - A. A. Salyers and D. D. Whitt, ASM Press, 1994.

Microbiology for the Health Sciences - M. M. Jensen, D. N. Wright and R. A. Robinson, 1997, Prentice Hall.  
 
Course Outline: 

The following is a proximate calendar for the areas of discussion. Because events occur in this subject area, there has to be a certain flexibility built into the course. It is very possible that this calendar will not require any alteration.

September 2. Organizational meeting. Discussion of the course approach and requirements

September 9. Microbes and human disease.

September 16. Emerging bacterial and viral diseases.

September 23. Detection of pathogens

September 30. No class

October 7. Travelers health -- food, water, etc.

October 14. Nosocomial infections.

October 21. Opportunistic infections.

October 28. Antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance in bacteria.

Novermber 4. Aquaculture

November 11. Food handling

November 18. Food safety -- HACCP

December 2. Epidemiology and control of foodborne diseases

December 9. Food borne illness -- future implications

FINAL EXAMINATIONS