Course Details
Country:
Netherlands
Institution:
Free University of Amsterdam
Course Title:
Double Burden of Disease
Course Number:
AB_1109
Course Description:
The course ‘Double Burden of Disease’ is a course within the ‘Global
Health’ Track of the minor ‘Biomedical and Health Interventions’ of the
Bachelor’s programs Health Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and Health &
Life (and other health-oriented Bachelors programs).
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) currently face a “double burden
of disease”. This term was defined by the WHO as “first, the emerging
epidemics of non-communicable diseases and injuries, which are becoming
more prevalent in industrialized and developing countries alike, and
second, some major infectious diseases which survived the 20th century –
part of the unfinished health agenda” (WHO, 1999a). In essence, the
health shift from communicable diseases (CDs) (e.g. hepatitis A, polio,
measles, tetanus) to non-communicable/chronic diseases (NCDs) (e.g.
cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes) which health system
experts had seen in high income countries (HICs) after the second world
war was not happening in LMICs. Instead people in LMICs now face the
double burden of high rates of both NCDS and CDs. This is also described
as double-disease burden, dual burden, joint burden, and combined
burden.
Language:
English
Approved Equivalent:
GCH 332
Attachment Files:
