Overview

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Academic contacts

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Offerings

MURDOCH-S2-INT-2018-ONGOING

Other learning activities

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Learning activities

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Learning outcomes

1.

Communicate knowledge of parasites of medical importance, including lifecycles, transmission pathways, risk factors, pathogenicity and diagnostic procedures

2.

Demonstrate and convey a proficiency and understanding of laboratory techniques commonly used for the identification of parasites of medical importance.

3.

Analyse basic epidemiological parameters such as parasite prevalence, intensity, distribution and abundance and apply these to real world scenarios

4.

Synthesise knowledge obtained in lectures and practicals to design an effective parasite control program

5.

Collaborate effectively as a member of a productive team

Assessments

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Additional information

Unit content:There are three overlapping conceptual frameworks for considering and studying infectious parasitic disease. (1) Medical framework: centred on individual patients and considers disease as the product of a particular pathogen in an individual host. (2) Epidemiological framework: studies the causation of disease in populations, with an emphasis on identifying statistical patterns of disease occurrence and quantifying relative risk. (3) Ecological framework: based on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of host-parasite interactions and how this influences disease processes. While these frameworks are complementary for understanding and controlling disease, medical and veterinary curricula typically have heavy emphasis on the medical framework, less emphasis on the epidemiological framework, and almost no discussion of the ecology of disease and its application to treatment and control. In this unit, we recognise that disease ecology should be viewed as a fundamental building block upon which other aspects can be added. We begin with a taxonomic overview of parasites that are important to medical science; there is a huge diversity of these, found in two animal kingdoms and several phyla. We then consider how parasites cause disease and how disease can be treated, before we move to an investigation of how disease establishes, moves through, and persists in populations, and how these processes can inform our strategies for parasite control. Finally, we consider the role of parasites in natural ecosystems and the complex interplay of biotic and abiotic factors that determine whether parasites need to be treated and controlled, or whether that may be a counter-productive activity.