MD ID 7730 - Outbreak: Emergence, Impact, and Management of Pandemic Viruses

This Advanced Integrated Science Course is a four-week deep examination of pandemic viruses and how they impact human health. The impacts of newly emerging viruses in healthcare and society are illustrated in dramatic detail in the long toll of the HIV pandemic going back to the 1980s and more recently in the COVID-19 pandemic. This course will cover the pathways by which viruses emerge to cause outbreaks in human populations; the mechanisms by which viruses propagate and cause disease; how therapeutics halt viral processes and are developed & evaluated; the role of social determinants of health in propagating healthcare inequities during viral outbreaks; and the modern medical approaches used to treat and prevent infections by pandemic viruses after they transition to endemicity.