This course breaks down the intricacies of public health and disease transmission. From the history of epidemiology to its practice today, we learn the value of understanding how diseases distribute themselves through populations.

Humans have come a long way since attributing death and disease to the whims of supernatural beings, in large part thanks to epidemiology.

Since its beginnings in ancient Greece, epidemiology has enabled us to rationalize the spread of diseases and find ways of containing or treating them.

Dr. Lorraine Alexander and Dr. Karin Yeatts are associate professors at the University of Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.

In this course, Alexander and Yeatts have pooled their expertise, taking us across continents and centuries of the epidemiological field.

We examine epidemiology's ability to adapt to human needs as populations move and grow, the precision required to carry out useful, ethical research, and the reasons why there is rarely a straight line between cause and effect.

Providing a thorough overview of epidemiology's power to improve and lengthen lives, the course instills an appreciation of this important research field.