Medical Microbiology: Parasitology (MIIM30017)

Parasites, and the infections they cause, are a major cause of global health and socio-economic burden. They cause substantial morbidity and mortality in humans and animals worldwide, and major losses to global food production. This subject focuses on medically-important parasites, how they interact with their hosts and cause disease, and how these infections impact on human health and populations globally.

This subject takes a broad, multi-disciplinary approach to introduce students to the excitingly complex and diverse world of medically important parasites. Aspects of host-parasite interactions and disease pathogenesis (including immune evasion mechanisms and relevant host defences), as well as parasite life-cycles, transmission, diagnosis, prevention (including vaccine and drug development), treatment, control and impact on human health locally and globally will be covered. Topics will be addressed from the disciplinary perspectives of microbiology, immunology, biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, genomics, physiology and epidemiology. Examples of medically-important protists (unicellular eukaryotes), helminths (worms) and arthropods (including insects) will be studied.

This subject consists of lectures and active-learning sessions, including practicals. It is delivered by internationally renowned parasitologists and global health researchers.