London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

We are delighted to welcome you to LSHTM and to the MSc Control of Infectious Diseases.

The programme provides access to multidisciplinary training in public health, epidemiology, health policy, field perspectives and aspects of laboratory sciences, in the context of disease control. Students accepted will have diverse backgrounds, some with extensive prior experience, others who are more recent graduates in medicine, bioscience or related subjects with only limited relevant work experience, all with a commitment to working on the control of infectious diseases. One of the great strengths of the programme is the student group itself, with a wealth of skills and experiences to draw on.

The coming year should be one of your most enjoyable and rewarding. LSHTM is a remarkable place, with an unusual breadth of opportunities, and with worldwide collaborations. Please be proactive and make the most of all LSHTM has to offer. Previous students from this programme are now scattered around the globe, making a real contribution to the improvement of international health. In a year, you will be joining this privileged group of graduates from the MSc Control of Infectious Diseases.

Welcome Week timetable

At the start of the programme you will be allocated a personal tutor with whom you will meet regularly throughout the year. Where possible we try to match personal tutors to the student’s background and areas of interest.

There is no obligatory pre-programme reading for the MSc Control of Infectious Disease programme. Module and lecture specific reading recommendations will be provided throughout the programme. However, students with limited previous knowledge of infectious diseases may find it helpful to refer to Webber's book on Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Control, listed below.

We recommend that all students purchase the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual and Modern Infectious Disease Epidemiology but not necessarily before joining the MSc. The other books listed relate either to the options that you select in term 1 (health policy or health economics) and the modules chosen for term 2 (the books by Giesecke and Noah).

• Webber, R. Communicable Disease Epidemiology & Control, 3rd Edition. Wallingford: CAB International. 2009, ISBN 978-1-84593-504-7.
• Heymann, D. L..(ed). Control of Communicable Diseases Manual. APHA 2008 (19th Ed.) ISBN 978-0-87553-189-2
• Abel-Smith, B. Introduction to Health, Policy, Planning & Financing, Longman London & New York, 1994, ISBN 0582238668
• Walt, G. Health Policy: An introduction to Process and Power, Zed, 1994, ISBN 1856492648
• Wonderling, D., Gruen, R. and Black, N. Introduction to Health Economics, Open University Press, 2005, ISBN 0335218342
• Noah, N Controlling Communicable Disease, Open University Press, 2006, ISBN 033521844X
• Giesecke, J. Modern Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Arnold. 2002. ISBN 0340764236.
• Klenerman, P. The Immune System: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford