TM5518:03
Medical Entomology
| Townsville | HECS Band 2 |
Semester 2 Limited Attendance with July residential.
Staff: Dr D Canyon (Coordinator).
Arthropod vectors, such as mosquitoes, flies and ticks, transmit diseases to a billion people each year with associated annual mortality of over 1,000,000. A few diseases have been eradicated or controlled to some degree, however many are now re-emerging on a global scale due to a lack of vector specialists, insecticide resistance, diversion of funds to other diseases and lack of treatment. This multidisciplinary subject was developed because the practice of public health is demanding an increasing understanding of the relationship between human health and arthropod vectors. Public health professionals will be increasingly relied upon for assistance in formulating strategic eradication or control policies and will be required to explain the human implications of these policies to the public. Students will acquire knowledge, professional attitudes and skills required for vector-borne disease management by learning about the biology, surveillance and control of disease vectors.
Learning Objectives:
- develop a knowledge and understanding of the extent of health problems related to disease-bearing arthropods;
- develop the ability to evaluate claims, evidence and arguments relating to vector biodynamics, behaviour and capacity to transmit disease pathogens;
- learn about and critically analyse current eradication/control strategies, policies and available resources;
- understand the inherent interaction issues between individuals/communities, environmental parameters, vector relations and authority;
- build up a coherent and disciplined body of skills, knowledge, values and professional ethics and to expand problem solving capacity by defining and solving problems relating to the management of vectors implicated in the transmission of disease.
Assessment by reports (60%); examination (40%).