• Disease in developing countries


    This course aims to provide you with the opportunity to find out about health in a particular country, or region, and about major disease categories facing populations in the world.  After completion of this section, you should be able to:

    • assess the global burden and patterns of diseases in different countries and how they are changing over time
    • identify some of the challenges in the prevention and control of major communicable and non-communicable diseases in resources limited settings

    When considering the Public Health aspects of an disease, we usually try to explore the burden of the disease on the population, the causes (by understanding the epidemiology and social and cultural determinants) and the evidence base to allow treatment and prevention and control that will reduce the burden of disease. In this introduction to disease in developing countries, we can only briefly touch on some of these aspects, and have chosen to explore in this section issues relating to the burden of disease and some aspects of prevention and control; we will not be discussing treatment options.

    Prevention and control. Right at the start of this section, it is worth thinking about global control and prevention programs, and the most well known global initiatives are the Sustainable Development Goals which replaced the widely acclaimed Millennium Development Goals (the UN site Millennium Development Goals 2015 and beyond is still available as a gateway to information about the MDGs). Many of the SDGs have a health component. You may find 'Real-time briefings on sustainable development and humanitarian action' of interest.

    How to navigate the course. Click on the blue Hyperlinks to access the various parts of the course. You will find links to a number of relevant readings in the sections marked Resources. You are also invited to reflect on the issues identified in the presentations (click on the Reflection links - you will then be able to see reflections of previous students and will receive email copies of those who post a reflection after you).

    Earn a certificate.There is a quiz in the final section of the course - if you take the Quiz, and access the Resources in each section, you will earn a certificate.

    Creative Commons License
    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

    Note: For this course, we have chosen five key health issues facing low- to middle-income countries, although there are many more health problems facing these countries. We are also only providing a snapshot of the problems - you will find more depth in other of our Open Online Courses, or even in our master's programme if you wish to gain academic credit.

  • The Burden of Disease



    Introduction

    Learn about the major disease categories facing populations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. You will explore the burden of disease within a population which includes the epidemiology of the disease, the relevant social and cultural determinants of health, and the evidence base which allows for the discussion and study of treatment, prevention, and control measures that will reduce the burden of disease.

    The course is designed to help you: 

    • Assess the global burden and patterns of diseases in different countries and how they are changing over time.
    • Identify some of the challenges in the prevention and control of major communicable and non-communicable diseases in resource-limited settings.

    This course is an Open Access Course that has been adopted from Peoples-uni. It was further developed by NextGenU.org (NGU) and sponsored in part by the Annenberg Physician Training Program (APTP).

    There are six (6) modules to complete, which include:

    Module 1: Global Burden of Disease
    Module 2: Communicable Diseases
    Module 3: Non-Communicable Diseases
    Module 4: Neglected Tropical Diseases
    Module 5: Injury
    Module 6: Mental Illness

    Approximate time for completion of this course is 3 hours at an average reading rate of 144 words/minute.

    Engaging with this course

    • To register for this course, complete the registration form. Begin the course with Module 1. For each lesson, read the description. 
    • Each lesson comprises introductory remarks. You can click on the collections of resources in each module. 
    • There is a final quiz to assess your understanding of some important concepts. Click on the hyperlinks to take you to these items in each topic.


    Requirements to obtain the certificate 

    You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment. There are no requirements.

    To obtain a certificate, a learner must successfully complete:

    • All reading requirements
    • The final exam with a minimum of 70% and a maximum of 3 attempts and
    • The self and course evaluation forms

    • Module 1: Global Burden of Disease

      After completing this section, you should be able to access resources to allow you to explore the burden of disease in developing countries.

      1 Page

    • Module 2: Communicable Diseases

      After completing this section, you should be able to appreciate some of the major features of communicable diseases in developing countries and some of the methods for prevention and control.

      1 Page

    • Module 3: Non-Communicable Diseases

      After completing this section, you should be able to appreciate some of the major features of non-communicable diseases in developing countries and some of the methods for prevention and control.

      1 Page

    • Module 4: Neglected Tropical Diseases

      After completing this section, you should be able to appreciate the existence of a group of diseases categorised as Neglected Tropical Diseases, and the extent of the burden on the population.

      1 Page

    • Module 5: Injury

      After completing this section, you should be able to appreciate the burden and causes of injury in developing countries and some of the methods for prevention and control.

      1 Page

    • Module 6: Mental Illness

      After completing this section, you should be able to appreciate the threats to mental health and the burden of disease in developing countries.

      1 Page

    • Final Exam

      Click here to start the Final Examination.

      • Final Exam Quiz
        Restricted Not available unless:

    • Course and Self Evaluation & Certificate

      In this section, you can provide feedback about this course to help us make NextGenU.org better. Once evaluations are completed, you will be able to download your certificate of completion.
      Click here to give your feedback. 
      • Course Evaluations Questionnaire
        Restricted Not available unless: The activity Final Exam is marked complete
      • Self Evaluation Questionnaire
        Restricted Not available unless: The activity Final Exam is marked complete

    • Finally: Reflect, Feedback, and Gain a Certificate

      Not available

      At the end of the course, please reflect on the overall lessons you have learned that may be of use.

      If you have explored the resources in each section and completed the quiz, you are eligible to gain a certificate. Click on the Certificate logo below.