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Global Health: Investigating Outbreaks, Preventing Disease

Become a Summer Trojan and earn college credit.

Program Overview

“Global Health” takes a broad, multidisciplinary approach and explores how medicine, public health, international relations, economics and other disciplines must be integrated to save lives worldwide.

Students will examine historical and current examples of infectious disease outbreaks, and learn the strategies used to predict, detect, control and prevent infectious disease outbreaks locally and worldwide.

This course will also explore determinants of poor physical and mental health outcomes, such as poverty, gender inequality and climate change, investigating how human rights law and principles of solidarity and justice can enhance health worldwide.

We will also cover the major health promotion theories used in developing effective public health messaging, and practice research methods to collect health data.

Students in lab coats and goggles sit around a table smiling and making "Fight On" signs in a classroom.

Key Information

Topics of Study

Public and global health
Infectious disease outbreaks and prevention
Social determinants of health
Health behavior theories
Health research methods and data analysis
International relations

Learning Highlights

Describe the processes by which infectious diseases spread
Identify and explain the core public health methods and tools for detecting, controlling and preventing infectious disease outbreaks
Analyze historical and contemporary case studies of infectious disease outbreaks (e.g. COVID-19, Ebola, Zika) and evaluate how different response strategies succeeded or failed
Explain the roles of poverty, gender, the environment and human rights in shaping patterns of disease burden within and across populations
Evaluate how inequalities (economic, social, geographic) affect health outcomes
Critically assess existing public health policies, international laws and global health governance (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement, etc.)
Use health research methods to gather and interpret data relevant to global health issues
Describe the major health behavior theories used in public health
Design and communicate evidence-based messages for improving health outcomes in different communities
Design and conduct a mini health research study

Requirements

Students must bring their own laptops
Students should bring long pants and closed-toed shoes for our field trip to the Midnight Mission, a homeless shelter

Week	Focus	Key Topics	Assignments and Activities
1	Introduction to Global Health Trends	Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); poverty; social determinants of health	Group presentations on SDGs. Apply the social determinants of health to various scenarios. Report health indicators for a chosen country.
2	Epidemiology and Infectious Disease Investigation	Primary/secondary prevention; transmission of disease; investigation methods and tools	Practice investigation methods on a Zombie Outbreak. Field trip to vector-borne disease lab. Hear from guest speakers from the LA County Department of Public Health. Become disease detectives for a mock outbreak on campus.
3	Social Justice and Human Rights, Health Behavior Theories	Health behavior theories; public health messaging design; presentation skills	Field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. Develop an infographic. Analyze health behavior theories in public service announcements. Represent a delegation at a mock UN Climate Change Conference.
4	Research Methods	Conducting health research; presenting health data in a compelling way	Serve food at a homeless shelter. Design and carry out a mini health study. Practice collecting and analyzing health data.

USC Summer Programs taught me a lot and gave me insight into what working in the world of global health looks like!

— USC Summer Programs student participant