Teaching / Epidemiology and Public Health

Epidemiology and Public Health (EPI)


Since September 2003, the Epidemiology and Public Health (EPI) proposes a programme dedicated to epidemiology and public health, focusing on infectious and parasitic diseases. The School benefits from the highly favourable environment of a campus dedicated to the study of infectious diseases, including approximately 100 research units, 20 national reference centres, a medical centre, a scientific information centre, and also a training centre.

Additionally, as from the 2008-2009 academic year, the programmes offered at EPI will enable students who so wish, to undertake a “Mastère spécialisé” in public health with a specialisation in “ infectious risk” within the Institut Pasteur-Cnam School of Public Health. This “Mastère spécialisé” can be taken over one or two years, and includes theoretical training covering the fundamentals in public health (October to January), an “ infectious risk” specialisation (February to May), also an internship (June to November). The details concerning enrolment in the “Mastère spécialisé” of Public Health are presented on the website of the Institut Pasteur-Cnam School of Public Health (Pasteur-Cnam).

Objectives

Through this programme the School aims to train epidemiologists and public health specialists in the field of infectious and parasitic diseases.

Public concerned

EPI is not restricted to the medical professions, it also addresses all persons who have an interest in research and expertise in the field of infectious risk: economists, sociologists, geographers, development specialists, health engineers, government officials, health institution administrators, professionals of the agrofood and pharmaceutical industries, also members of the local authorities, NGOs, international organisations, insurance groups, etc. Potential applicants may possess different academic backgrounds (human or veterinary medical studies, biology, social sciences, economics,…) and may come from University Departments, Hospitals or Veterinary Schools, top higher education establishments, or may be currently studying at these establishments with a “Baccalauréat + 3” level (3 years post-secondary education) or equivalent for international students.

Program

The programme groups several courses that can be taken separately or as part of predetermined curricula (For further information, please refer to the “Mastère spécialisé” in Public Health). The emphasis is placed on practical training, associating case studies with supervised practical work. The School benefits from the support of the many specialists at Institut Pasteur, of French and International Universities, also of many other organisations involved in public health actions: Institut Pasteur International Network, Health Agencies and National Reference Centres, INSERM, IRD, CIRAD, INRA, National Veterinary Schools, etc.

Students who do not possess prior training in epidemiology and biostatistics, and who wish to follow the courses “Epidemic Surveillance, Alert, and Investigation”, “Clinical trials and infectious diseases”, and “Arthropods carriers and human health” are invited to register for the session 2 of the course on “Epidemiology and Biostatistics”.
Dec
Data Analysis Using Stata session 1 :
Introduction to Stata
Data Analysis Using Stata session 2 :
Stata & Logistic regression
Jan
Feb
Mar
Vaccinology
(in english)
Apr
Zoonosis module 1 :
Understanding and controlling
zoonoses, assessment of
the associated risks
Data Analysis Using Stata session 3 :
Stata & Survival (Cox model)
Zoonosis module 2 :
Emergence and development
of zoonoses
May

 

Academic year 2009-2010

  1. The goal of this training program, consisting of three independent courses that can be followed separately, is to teach students the use of the STATA statistical package for the analysis (logistic regression and survival analysis) of biomedical databases.

    • Session 1 : introduction to Stata for data analysis, from November 30, to December 4, 2009
    • Session 2 : logistics regression using Stata, from December 7 to 11, 2009 
    • Session 3 : Survival analysis and Cox models on Stata, from April, 19 to 23, 2010


  2. Course "Circulation of Pathogens and Risk Control"

    About 150 hours split up into 5 weeks full-time, from January 11, to  February 12, 2010. The course presents the general concepts of eco-epidemiology, the different transmission modes of infectious agents, the principles for the surveillance and control of infectious diseases, the consequences of human activities, also examples illustrating the epidemiological situation of some diseases. 


  3. Course "Creation and Management of MS Access and Epidata Databases"

    One week full-time, February 15, to 19, 2010. This training program covers all steps of Data Management to teach students how to perform well-developed clinical research and epidemiological studies. The goal of this training program is to teach students to create databases using Case Report Forms (CRF) with two different software packages: Epidata software for epidemiology surveys and MS Access for cohort, case-control studies and clinical trials. This training course including sessions on theory (Relational Model) followed by practical work on the MS Access and Epidata softwares.


  4. Course "Introduction to Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Validation of Diagnostic Tests"

    The course, which lasts one week (February 22, to 26, 2010), alternates theoretical lectures with practical application. Two days will be dedicated to learning summary variables (mean, median), variation (standard deviation, variance), and test theory (comparison of means and proportions). The third day will cover the most common forms of epidemiological studies (case-control studies, cohort studies, clinical trials), the main measures of associations (relative risk, odds ratios), and the biases encountered in epidemiological studies (selection, classification, and confounding). Finally, the last two days are dedicated to the validation of diagnostic tests: methods for evaluation (STARD guidelines), and measures (sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, ROC curves).


  5. Course "Human Genetics and Infectious Diseases"

    One week full-time, February 22, to 26, 2010. This course presents the effects that infectious diseases have on the human genome, also the molecular and statistical methods used in order to identify, in humans, the factors involved in the response to infectious agents.


  6. Course "Vaccinology"

    5 weeks full-time, March 1st, to April, 2 2010 (in English). The objective of the course is to provide a comprehensive vision of Vaccinology, from the scientific, medical and public health data justifying the development of a vaccine through to its becoming available to the population, in different contexts, pertaining to industrialized and developing countries.


  7. Course "Surveillance, Alert and Outbreak Investigation"

    Covering 2 weeks full-time, March 1st, to 12, 2010. After taking this course, participants will have mastered the fundamental principles and methods used in descriptive and analytical epidemiology, also in statistics as applied to epidemiological surveillance. They will be in a position to manage epidemiological data, contribute to the preparation of public health surveys, also to take the appropriate measures adapted to the control of epidemics, and communicate information and results in the case of health crisis.


  8. Course "Food Safety and Risk Analysis"

    Covering 2 weeks full-time, March 15, to 26, 2010. The fist week is dedicated to the process adopted for analysing risks associated with contaminated foodstuffs in general, and to the scientific evaluation of these risks in particular. The second week aims to teach participants the practical bases required in order to develop probabilistic models used for the quantitative evaluation of risks associated with contaminated food.


  9. Course "Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases"

    Covering 9 days full-time, April 6 to 16, 2010. This course is intended to provide students a solid background in the mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. Participants learn about deterministic, stochastic, as well as complex network models. Lectures alternate with computing exercises.


  10. Course "Zoonosis"

    This training course consists of two complementary modules, each full-time over two weeks, which can be taken separately. Its purpose is to present the diversity of zoonotic agents and the corresponding systems of transmission as well as to illustrate the contribution that can be made to understanding them by the different disciplines involved in the study of transmissible diseases (microbiology, parasitology, epidemiology, ecology, genetics, social sciences, etc.)

    • Module 1 : Understanding and controlling zoonoses, assessment of the associated risks, from 6 April to 16 April 2010.
    • Module 2 : Emergence and development of zoonoses, from 19 April to 30 April 2010.


  11. Course "Transfusion Safety Infectious Diseases"

    2 weeks full-time, May 17, to 28, 2010. The main objective of this course is to present the current state of knowledge concerning epidemiology and research for the prevention of infections that can be transmitted via blood transfusion.

The following will also be addressed in  2010-2011

  1. Course  "Clinical Trial and Infectious and Tropical Diseases"

    Approximately 100 hours (4 weeks full-time). This course aims to present the methods used to design therapeutic or vaccine trials, also to analyse their results, mainly within a tropical environment.

  2. Course  "Arthropods and Human Health"

    This course consists of lectures and practical work, and presents an exhaustive review of the natural history, the ecology and transmission of diseases transmitted by arthropods. The emphasis is placed on laboratory and field methods, including molecular taxonomy, statistical sampling, remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS).

Diplomas delivered

Completion of each of the above EPI courses will lead to the issue of a diploma delivered by the Institut Pasteur. Some of the courses may also serve to validate inter-university degrees or to obtain ECTS credits as part of certain Masters’ programmes. Further details are presented on the web pages specific to each course (Pasteur-Cnam; about masters).