Parasitology

Overview

Objectives: Parasites have a profound negative impact on the health and economy of the world. This course aims to promote an awareness and understanding of the biology (behaviour, biochemistry, genetics, immunology and physiology) of parasites and host-parasite interactions, and to examine the application of this knowledge to parasite management and the control of parasite disease.

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

LO1: Demonstrate a broad understanding of the importance of parasites and their relevance to the health and economy of the world as well as to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
LO2: Exhibit in depth knowledge of the complexity of parasites including their behaviour, biology, impact, life history, treatment and control.
LO3: Write a range of reports including those which: focus on public engagement; critique primary scientific literature in the field of parasitology, and; evaluate a disease scenario.
LO4: Integrate diverse information from across the field of parasitology and use this to identify specific diseases and then to recommend the optimal approaches to diagnosis, treatment and control.
LO5: Interrogate and critically analyse primary and secondary scientific literature by drawing on the knowledge acquired from the module.

Skills

Students will have developed diverse written communication skills through the writing of several reports, including a public understanding of science element and a case study report. Students will also develop their ability to interrogate data and draw on acquired knowledge ion the course to assign a disease diagnosis as part of a case study report. Finally, students will also learn to interrogate and evaluate primary and secondary scientific literature through the critique of a recent scientific paper in parasitology.

Assessment

Must submit all elements of coursework including completing the class test. To pass, students must score a minimum of 40% in the combined continuous assessment elements.