GEOG 380
Geographical
Patterns of Health
Dr. Jonathan
Mayer
Lecture:
Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:30-6:20, Smith Hall, Room 120
Sections:
as listed on your registration schedule.
Professor:
Dr. Jonathan D. Mayer,
Professor, Departments of Epidemiology,
Geography, Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Global Health, Health
Services, and Family Medicine;
Tel: (206) 543-7110, Offices: Health Sci
F-259 and Smith 412-C
Email: jmayer@u.washington.edu
Office hours: by appointment. If
requesting an appointment via email, please send your request to both jmayer@uw.edu, and
Please do not sent these to my regular
email
TAs
Skye Naslund
Dena Aufseeser
Listproc (mailman) for course: geog380a_sp12@uw.edu (please remember,
for your own privacy, that anything posted to the listproc
will go to everybody in the class. This has proven to be an embarrassment to
some people in the past, so be cautious!)
A word on academic honesty and integrity
is in order. We will adhere strictly to the rules of the University of
Washington and the academic community in prohibiting plagiarism, cheating, and
academic dishonesty. These provisions are spelled out in detail at the
following website, with which all students are expected to be familiar. Each
year in this class, several cases of cheating and plagiarism, unfortunately,
are discovered. To prevent this, you must read the contents of the following
website:
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm
We assume that each and every student is
familiar with the contents of this web page. No excuses will be accepted for
academic dishonesty. Be very careful; there is no tolerance for dishonesty in
this class.
By submitting a piece of written work for
the course, we assume that you have read the webpage above, are familiar with
the UniversityÕs policies on academic honesty, and agree to abide by them.
Thus, no excuses for plagiarism or cheating will be accepted.
REQUIREMENTS:
Books:
Everybody is expected to subscribe to ProMED (Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases) at www.promedmail.org, ÒsubscribeÓ on the
upper left. We will talk about relevant postings.
You should check the first box, or, if
you prefer just one or two bulletins per day, you should check ProMED-digest, which is the second box. We will discuss at
least one or two of the bulletins each week in lecture.
The following books are required for the
course. We will talk about relevant readings at the beginning of each class.
Madeleine Drexler, Emerging Epidemics: The Menace of New Infections. New York: Penguin
Books, 2002, 2003 (afterword).
Nathan Wolfe, The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age. New York: Times
Books, 2011.
Jacques Pepin, The Origins of AIDS. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2011.
Robert S. Desowitz,
Federal Bodysnatchers
and the New Guinea Virus: Tales of Parasites, People, and Politics. New
York: WW Norton, 2002.
Optional: The following may be acquired
at several local bookstores, and from the major online vendors. David L. Heymann, ed. Control
of Communicable Disease Manual, 19th edition. Washington:
American Public Health Association Press, 2009. This book is a very valuable
reference, and you are encouraged to read about each disease in this handbook.
Grading:
Details will be
discussed in quiz section on Thursday. Grades will be based on the following
assignments:
Quiz section
(20%)
Poster presentation—done
in quiz section (25% of total grade)
Research
proposal—done in quiz section (25% of total grade)
Take-home final
exam (30% of total). This will be emailed to the class list on Wednesday,
May 30th, and it will be due by 5 PM on Tuesday, June 5.
Details
will be discussed in your first quiz sections.
There
are NO makeup assignments, and NO extra credit.
Course
rationale:
Health
and disease are not only medical issues, but they are also social,
environmental, and geographical phenomena. People and groups must always live
in the contexts and constraints of the world that is extraneous to them.
Disease is also a major world problem. Both infectious and non-infectious
diseases have social causes, in part, and also
influence societies. This course sets disease and health within the framework
of human-environment interaction.
Course
goals and objectives:
The
major goal of this course is to introduce students to geographical approaches
to health and disease, particularly within the setting of human-environment
interactions. Included in this are the roles of culture, behavior, and
politics. We will cover many specific diseases, but in addition to their
inherent interest, each is prototypical of one or more aspects of environmental
equilibrium and disequilibrium. To do this, though, one must also have a solid
background in the basic scientific and epidemiologic characteristics and
determinants of disease.
My
educational beliefs:
Students
are inherently curious and seek to understand the world surrounding them and
the world in which they live. These courses, and my teaching, are both aimed at
encouraging the critical analysis of the human-health-environment
relationships. This understanding and analysis must come from a solid knowledge
of the factual, scientific, and conceptual bases from which such understanding
and thinking must come. Some students will find that this course will
contribute directly to their professional development, while others will find
that it provides a basis for understanding issues of health and disease as
citizens in a democratic society, in which we can all help to determine the
course of society. My own role in this course will be multifaceted. Sometimes I
will serve as an authority on the subjects that we will cover. At other times, I
will be a facilitator of inquiry and debate. I hope that I will always be a
resource for your own interests and investigations as we proceed through the
course.
Week of March 26
Introduction
to course and basic concepts
In-class
film: Contagion
Reading: Wolfe, ch.
1-6
Week of April 2
Emerging
infectious diseases
Definitions,
examples, and ways of thinking
Role
of the environment
Why
are emerging diseases emerging now? From history to molecule
Reading: Wolfe, ch.
7-12; Drexler, ch. 1-3
Week of April 9
Modeling
infectious disease
Examples
of emerging infections: Lyme disease, West Nile, SARS, and influenza
Reading: Drexler, ch.
4-8
Week of April 16
Neglected
Tropical Diseases and ÒThe Bottom BillionÓ
Examples
Reading: Desowitz,
Introduction-ch. 5.
Week of April 23
Our
Òold friendsÓ: Old diseases in a new context
Reading: Desowitz,
ch. 6-10.
Week of April 30
HIV/AIDS:
The essential emerging disease
What
is HIV?
Poverty,
people, biology
Reading: Pepin, ch.
1-4
Week of May 7
Origins
and spread of HIV: from molecular epidemiology to maps
Reading: Pepin, ch.
5-7 and ch. 12, 13
Week of May 14 and on May 21
Reading: Pepin ch.
8-11
Prevention
and treatment of HIV: Programs that work, and programs that flop
Week of May 21
Prevention
and treatment of HIV (continued, May 21)
Tuberculosis
(TB): Epidemiology, Geography, and Social Influences (May 23)
Reading: To be announced from recently
published articles
Week of May 28: Memorial Day on May 28; no class. Last
lecture on May 30. Official end of classes: Friday, June 1.
May
30 (Wed): Continuation of TB discussion
Reading: To be announced from very recent
articles