The MSc Control of Infectious Diseases is for people
who want to make a direct contribution to control of diseases and to improvement of international health
It contains multidisciplinary teaching but also incorporates a research project
that takes them overseas to endemic areas
and it has focused teaching components which are designed to facilitate their future career development
The students acquire a wide range of skills from the course
In the first term they are given skills in epidemiology, public health and policy or health economics
understanding disease transmission cycles, life cycles of parasites and basic statistics
So that first term gives them a broad, multidisciplinary platform
We then help students to choose relevant optional modules that focus on their particular career path
The MSc Control of Infectious Diseases at the London School is really interdisciplinary
It requires that you study statistics and epidemiology so all of these skills-based disciplines
alongside the pathogens, the biology and the really important disease work that we do
I chose to study at the School because of its reputation
In my field of work in international public health and development
it's well known to be one of the best of its kind so I didn't pay any other consideration to it
I only applied to this School
I would definitely recommend the MSc Control of Infectious Diseases
It's a brilliant course for anybody who is interested in understanding the major control programmes
of infectious diseases as well as getting the grounding that you would get through a public health degree
so you get the epidemiology and the economics side of things as well as the infectious disease control
I suppose the thing that I've most enjoyed has been the outbreak investigation
that was in Epidemiology and Control of Communicable Diseases
which was one of the courses that we had to take in our third term here
and basically it's a three-day group work exercise
where you're given information about an outbreak and your job as a team
is to figure out what has happened
What the outbreak was, where it was, how it started, what type of pathogen
and then present it all in an outbreak report
and it was messy and frustrating and such a great learning experience
because it's supposed to be all of those things
so the great thing about the London School is that it's not just lectures
It's lectures but it's also the practical component
The research project is quite a unique feature of the course
It was certainly entirely unique when the course was set up
It takes students to endemic regions and they join in real-life disease control scenarios
so it's very important for their formative skills and coping with the real world and their future career development
The background of our course is quite international
I'm from Canada and there are plenty of other people from all round the world
In fact I'd say that there are UK students but they're definitely in the minority
And in terms of background career-wise, some of us have just come from undergrad
some of us have come from a couple of years of work experience
and some of us have come from a decade or more of experience in public health
The great thing about all of these different types of people is that you can learn from your peers
The course has given me the knowledge I need to be able to work on health programmes
on many of the infectious diseases that I've studied
and it also gives you a taste of what is out there and the more that you still don't know
so that probably in the future it might be nice to do a PhD
I've learned what the options are out there and it's helped me to tailor my career
to exactly the infectious diseases that I want to pursue
I'm hoping to do something in public health and use my epidemiology skills
but also use the fact that I've spent a lot of time working on HIV/AIDS at the School
so I've got sort of a public health, policy, health economics background
that the MSc Control of Infectious Diseases gave me
but I'm also looking to go into a very disease-specific role in the future
Students on the course get a wide range of teaching support both from within the School and from outside
We invite appropriate experts to come in and share their experience and their skills
By and large I've been really very impressed by the professors here
Instead of being a lecturer and student relationship it's very much on par and equal
and they're very generous with their time
They speak to us as peers and it's more of a collaborative relationship that a dominant relationship
One strength of the course in the Control of Infectious Diseases
is the community spirit in the class and the fact that that goes beyond the end of the course
So we now have former CID students all over the world and doing wonderful things
and many of them keep in touch with each other
and that's very helpful for arranging future projects and for future career opportunities
This is the CID sweater
This is the front with the London School crest
and then on the back in massive letters it says "Control of Infectious Diseases"
and then all of our names and the year that we hope to graduate!