ECTE 2009
28^th European Course in Tropical Epidemiology
August 17^th - September 4^th 2009
a three weeks course

Organized by:

Nordic School of Public Health

Göteborg – Sweden

	Dr. Max Petzold

The European Course in Tropical Epidemiology (ECTE) is a short course organised by several European centres of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. It is held annually at different European venues, including London, Goteborg, Antwerp, and others (see list below). The lecturers and facilitators for the course are lecturers of these centres of excellence for research in the tropics and have extensive teaching and research experience. This is an intensive course in basic epidemiology and is intended for physicians, nurses, biologists, anthropologists, health programme managers and other professionals with an interest in tropical countries. The course provides participants with basic skills in the epidemiological assessment of health problems and service priorities and in the planning of field studies. Emphasis will be on the methodology and practical application of epidemiological tools in developing countries, the interpretation of data and on the reporting of field studies.

ECTE is currently organised by:

Nordic School of Public Health, Goteborg, Sweden.
Department of Tropical Hygiene and Public Health, Heidelberg University, Germany.
Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland.
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK
Centre for Tropical Diseases “Sacro Cuore – Don G. Calabria” Hospital, Negrar, Verona, Italy.
Mario Negri Research Institute, Milano - S. Maria Imbaro, Italy.
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
Department of Public Health, Prince Leopold Institute for Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.

ECTE will build knowledge and skills around basic epidemiology and medical statistics and will utilize computer packages appropriate to these skills.

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PRE-REQUISITES

The course is appropriate for those without formal training in epidemiology or statistics. However the course is intensive and applicants should have a good command of English.

CERTIFICATE

A certificate of attendance is awarded to participants completing the course.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The course provides participants with basic epidemiological and statistical skills for the assessment of health problems, service delivery and planning of field studies, and provides links to social science, economics and computing skills which are often used in epidemiological studies. The emphasis of the course is on the practical application of tools for use in developing countries, the interpretation of data and reporting of operational studies. A comprehensive course manual is provided at the beginning of the course. The course will follow material found in the recommended textbooks but these are not essential.

OUTLINE OF THE PROGRAMME

general Principles of Epidemiology
the role and context of Tropical Epidemiology
basic epidemiology of infectious diseases, focussing on those occurring in the tropics
main types of epidemiological studies
risk estimation, high risk groups & risk factors
- outbreak investigation and response
- community epidemiology
- qualitative approaches in epidemiology
- evaluation of diagnostic tests
survey design, sampling, organization
questionnaire design
data entry, checking & processing
basic statistics using computers

The teaching includes lectures, groupwork, practical work and computer exercises.
Maximum number of participants: 30.

Have a look at the Timetable (2008).

COURSE FEE

The course fee will be set later this year.
This fee includes: participation in the course, the course manual and handouts, lunch on weekdays, refreshment at coffee breaks.
The fee does not include travel, accommodation or dinner.

ACCOMMODATION

Different types of accommodation at a reasonanble price are available close to the facilites. On request, a list of such accommodation possibilities will be sent.