Summer courses offered overseas

The department is committed to providing oppotunities for students to have academic and practical experiences overseas as a part of their training at Tulane.  To meet this commitment the department offers course work in Thailand, Jamaica, Kenya, and Peru.  There are courses in international development in China, Costa Rica, and other sites offered through the Payson Center.

Thailand

The department has agreements with two universities in Thailand that allow qualified students to take coursework in Thailand.  The Center for Health Economics at Chulalongkorn University and the ASEAN Institute for Health and Development (AIHD) at Mahidol University permit a limited number of students who are enrolled in the Department of International Health and Development to take up to nine credits of elective courses toward their MPH degree. This experience provides students with firsthand knowledge of public health, economic and development issues in a country that has been highly effective in public health interventions. In addition to the coursework, students will be able to arrange Capstone experiences in selected non governmental organizations (NGOs). For more information on the ASEAN Institute or the Chulalongkorn Program, please contact the department.

The department also offers a two credit course on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand (INHL 701 - The HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Thailand).  The course is led by Professor Mark VanLandingham.  Student travel to Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The overall objective of the course is to provide an intensive overview of the progression of HIV and AIDS in Thailand and the country's response to it, including responses from government and nongovernmental agencies, at both the national and local levels. Specifically, participants explore the following dimensions of the epidemic: basic epidemiological features (trends and differentials); social and economic impacts (micro and macro level); prevention programs; treatment programs; programs directed at mitigating the impact of AIDS on those infected and their families.

Jamaica

Professor John Mason leads a group of students to Jamaica for a two credit course in nutrition (INHL 650 - Field Methods for Nutrition Programs in Poor Communities in Jamaica).  The course is held in collaboration with, and is based at, the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI: PAHO/WHO regional institute), Kingston, Jamaica. The course includes extensive visits to health centers, households with Community Health Aides, schools, hospitals, food plants, research labs; in both rural and urban areas; studies on governmental and NGO projects and community-based programs (including growth monitoring). Students undertake assessment (in teams, on anemia, underweight children, and obesity) of extent and causes of problems, current and needed programs, policy implications.

Kenya, July 2007

A 3 credit, 3 week field course for public health students to explore a range of health, development and environmental issues that interact in the Sub-Saharan African context today is led by professors Macintrye and Murphy (INHL 653 - Health and Development in Kenya in the Age of HIV and AIDS).  This course uses Kenya as a laboratory to investigate aid agency and governmental projects tackling inter-related problems of HIV and AIDS, poverty, poor health care, and endemic malaria, urbanization, inter-tribal conflict, and globalization.  Participants meet up in the densely populated, chaotic city of Nairobi; a camping safari takes us to the semi-arid northern districts and across the Rift Valley. For 2007 we will visit AIDS-affected Western and Nyanza Provinces.  Students spend time: talking to VCT clinic staff, observing farming and water harvesting in rural Machakos, attending a mobile health clinic serving the Samburu, digging in a community garden and assessing an AIDS orphan program. Presentations from local and international experts complement site visits and community field trips. Academic course work includes reading texts and course-pack articles, individual essay writing, field exercises and group discussions.  Conditions are demanding, including long stretches of travel on unpaved roads, rough camping, hiking. Contact Laura Murphy (lmurphy2@tulane.edu) for more information. Visit the course webpage to download syllabus, forms, and other information (go to Kenya 2007, webpage under construction).

Peru, July 2007

The Health Office for Latin America of the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the department offer a 2 credit, 2 week course in Peru led by professor Valerie Paz Soldan, director of the Health Office for Latin America (INHL 655 - Health and Development Issues in Peru).  The course is a general introduction to health and development issues in a developing country, and covers a broad variety of topics--from infectious diseases to reproductive health to environmental health. During four days in Lima, Peru's capital located on the coast, the group visits two shantytowns in different stages of development, a medical research laboratory set up for tuberculosis studies, one of the oldest public hospitals in Lima and several non-governmental and community organizations. During three days in Iquitos, deep in the rain forest, students visit villages accessible only by boat.  There is a two day boat trip down the Amazon and a visit with a traditional healer who takes the students into the rain forest to find and learn about medicinal plants. Students also learn about different medical cases during their visit to an Iquitos hospital, hear about a treatment program for sexually transmitted infections designed mostly for sex workers and visit the febrile research station at a U.S. Navy medical research facility. In Cusco, high in the Andes, students are sent out to observe and report on health practices around the city, such as food-handling practices in the local market. The class also visits a street children's shelter and a shelter for pregnant women.