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Back to Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases by The Pennsylvania State University

4.8
stars
1,516 ratings

About the Course

Not so long ago, it was almost guaranteed that you would die of an infectious disease. In fact, had you been born just 150 years ago, your chances of dying of an infectious disease before you've reached the tender age of 5 would have been extremely high. Since then, science has come a long way in understanding infectious diseases - what they are, how they spread, and how they can be prevented. But diseases like HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, or the flu are still major killers worldwide, and novel emerging diseases are a constant threat to public health. In addition, the bugs are evolving. Antibiotics, our most potent weapon against bacterial infections, are losing their power because the bacteria are becoming resistant. In this course, we'll explore the major themes of infectious diseases dynamics. After we’ve covered the basics, we'll be looking at the dynamics of the flu, and why we're worried about flu pandemics. We'll be looking at the dynamics of childhood diseases such as measles and whooping cough, which were once considered almost eradicated, but are now making a comeback. We'll explore Malaria, and use it as a case study of the evolution of drug resistance. We'll even be looking at social networks - how diseases can spread from you to your friends to your friends' friends, and so on. And of course we’ll be talking about vaccination too. We’ll also be talking about how mobile phones, social media and crowdsourcing are revolutionizing disease surveillance, giving rise to a new field of digital epidemiology. And yes, we will be talking about Zombies - not human zombies, but zombie ants whose brains are hijacked by an infectious fungus. We're looking forward to having you join us for an exciting course!...

Top reviews

DB

Apr 22, 2016

Can't fault this course at all and nor would I want to. Very interesting, brilliantly presented and the range of experts really enhanced it. It was engaging and made me keen to find out more.

SN

Apr 11, 2016

great course and its intensive learning . One might think its just another course . However, one needs to follow all the lectures and notes closely to be able to pass all their assignments .

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76 - 100 of 376 Reviews for Epidemics - the Dynamics of Infectious Diseases

By Saikrishna S

Sep 23, 2020

The course covered a lot of interesting concepts and beautifully explained the theories of disease dynamics, their prevention, better management of epidemics and various mathematical modeling of diseases.

By saoirse

Aug 15, 2020

Really informative and simple explanations. I did this course the summer before COVID pandemic and everything I learned really helped me understand what was going on, especially things like the R0 value!

By Laura H

Jun 2, 2020

Very informative and very helpful. The videos were excellent, and the additional readings were both challenging and helpful in gaining some competency in understanding the dynamics of infectious disease.

By Diego R

Jan 24, 2022

Considero que es un excelente curso para introducirse al área de la epidemiología, ya sea para profesionales del área de la salud o personas que quieran tener un conocimiento general del tema.

By Abby J

Jan 25, 2016

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and learned a great deal of information in the process. I found the interviews to be very helpful in bringing it all together for me. Thank you professors!

By Gerwin N B

Aug 10, 2020

The course had been exciting and engaging! I hope Penn state could provide us more different topics but still related to this! I really love how everyone taught here! Good job! Keep it up!

By Bénédicte G

Aug 13, 2019

What a great comprehensive course about epidemics! Thank you so much to all of the people who gathered together to make this wonderful training and to share their knowledge with students!

By Rebenko H

Sep 17, 2020

I am sincerely grateful for this course. It has improved simultaneously my english and my professional skills. I falled in love with your teachers and I will miss without their lessons.

By Lindsay A S

Jun 18, 2020

I really enjoyed this course! For someone who is on the outside and wants a better understanding of how disease work in a fun cool way that is not over your head, this is the course!

By Patrice

May 21, 2020

The information was well suited for the pandemic that we are dealing with right now in 2020. I enjoyed all the lectures and learned a wealth of information I hadn't known before.

By Sunil A M

Jul 5, 2020

The course is very well constructed and the Lecturers are all experts in their field. They are able to explain complex scenarios in easy terms, which helps in the comprehension

By Douglas w

Apr 24, 2020

The instructors were very good and many of there examples were very interesting. Of particular interest to me, was the story of the Irish potato famine and the the zombie ants.

By Ahmad B

Apr 20, 2020

this course was the greatest course that i ever have been participated in , will organized , the information was easy to deliver and all teacher were great >>

really thank you

By Erez D

Mar 22, 2020

Thanks for the vivid animation and fulfill content, now I have learned more about the epidemics. As the COVID-19 outbreak, we need to be prepared in both knowledge and action.

By MEERA K M

Aug 18, 2020

one of the Excellent short term course i had attended in my lifetime. Resource persons were so good and no words to say about their narrations about epidemics. Outstanding

By Mustafa s

Apr 22, 2020

Great course which teaches you the basics and gives you intermediate information about different infectious diseases. It helped me alot and i think it will also help you.

By Annabelle M

Apr 10, 2020

Great class! I found all the themes very interesting, the presentations were engaging, and it was nice to have some researchers talk about their work. Highly recommended!

By Abdulrahman M

Sep 1, 2015

Thank you to all the members of course on this great effort has been spectacular and of course benefited him a lot and was very entertaining explanation you are great

By Rupok C

Sep 19, 2020

Great to learn a very intuitive course. Instructors have shown historic backgrounds and illustrates the underlying cause-effect related to epidemiology and biology.

By Laura M

Aug 8, 2017

The first week gave me a lot of fundamental tools, im a biology student and i complete my normal pregrade education, THANKS for make this kind of courses can happen

By Prajwal K

Aug 18, 2019

The course was interesting and very well structured. I thank the Coursera team and as well as the instructors for their sharing their valuable time and knowledge.

By Daniela

Oct 17, 2015

It is great!. I have been learned about experiments that researchers have been developed to understand the interaction between the host and the infectious agent.

By Ren B

May 27, 2021

I found this course hugely interesting. It has given me a good grounding in a topic I find fascinating and has opened new avenues of research for me to explore.

By Anna I

Nov 4, 2015

Excellent class with a rich variety of instructors from multidisciplinary array of fields, lots of extra information and pretty much any question answered!

By ROBERTO D G L

Oct 24, 2020

excelente aprendí mucho sobre la dinámica de las enfermedades y afiance conocimientos muy concretos sobre como se comportan las enfermedades infecciosas