Classroom

Google Classroom

We will use Google Classroom as LMS for our Minor Global Health 2023. All information like Roster, Lecture Sheets, Reader, Essential Global Health content and information on the Minor Global Health Masterclasses can be accessed through the Minor Global Health 2023 Classroom. 

Please note that all 'Assignments' will be posted on the Classroom stream. To turn in your assignments, you need to use Minor Global Health 2023 Classroom as well.

Minor Global Health 2023 website

Furthermore, you can also find this content through this website (after login!):

Compulsory Reading

Essentials of Global Health

Essentials of Global Health is a comprehensive introduction to global health. It is meant to introduce you to this topic in well-structured, clear and easy to understand ways. Much of the course will focus on five questions: What do people get sick, disabled and die from; Why do they suffer from these conditions? Which people are most affected? Why should we care about such concerns? What can be done to address key health issues, hopefully at least cost, as fast as possible, and in sustainable ways?  The course will be global in coverage but with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, the health of the poor, and health disparities. Particular attention will be paid throughout the course to health systems issues, the linkages between health and development, and health matters related to global interdependence. The course will cover key concepts and frameworks but be practical in orientation.

Global Health 101

As compulsory reading we will use Global Health 101 4th edition by Richard Skolnik. Check out the Global Health 101 website!

In use in over 300 college classrooms across the country, Global Health 101, Third Edition is a clear, concise, and user-friendly introduction to the most critical issues in Global Health. It illustrates key themes with an extensive set of case studies, examples, and the latest evidence. Particular attention is given to the health-development link, to low- and middle-income countries, and to the health needs of poor and disadvantaged people. 

Planetary Health

We live in unprecedented times - the Anthropocene - defined by far-reaching human impacts on the natural systems that underpin civilisation. Planetary Health explores the many environmental changes that threaten to undermine progress in human health, and explains how these changes affect health outcomes, from pandemics to infectious diseases to mental health, from chronic diseases to injuries. It shows how people can adapt to those changes that are now unavoidable, through actions that both improve health and safeguard the environment. But humanity must do more than just adapt: we need transformative changes across many sectors - energy, housing, transport, food, and health care. The book discusses specific policies, technologies, and interventions to achieve the change required, and explains how these can be implemented. It presents the evidence, builds hope in our common future, and aims to motivate action by everyone, from the general public to policymakers to health practitioners. 

Factfulness

When asked simple questions about global trends―what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school―we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess teachers, journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers.

Factfulness offers a radical new explanation of why this happens. It reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective―from our tendency to divide the world into two camps (usually some version of us and them) to the way we consume media (where fear rules) to how we perceive progress (believing that most things are getting worse).

Our problem is that we don’t know what we don’t know, and even our guesses are informed by unconscious and predictable biases. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think.That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Inspiring and revelatory, filled with lively anecdotes and moving stories, Factfulness is a new thinking habit that will change the way you see the world and empower you to respond to challanges and opportunities of the future.


“One of the most important books I’ve ever read―an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.” – Bill Gates

“A genuine antidote to negativity and hopelessness…” – Nature

Very Much Advised Reading

De Derde Wereld op je CV

Waterputten slaan, scholen bouwen, zieken verzorgen: jaarlijks stappen vele vrijwilligers en studenten op het vliegtuig om in Afrika, Azië of Zuid-Amerika de handen uit de mouwen te steken en werkervaring op te doen. Fantastisch, of toch niet? 

Op basis van eigen ervaringen en onderzoek laat Judith van de Kamp de andere kant zien van werken in een ontwikkelingsland. Is die goedbedoelde hulp wel nuttig? Doe je het voor de ander of voor jezelf, en kan dat ook samengaan? Onverbloemd geeft Judith van de Kamp haar kijk op de zin en onzin van kortstondig werk door westerlingen. Ze laat het werkelijke leven in een ontwikkelingsland zien en geeft vele nuttige tips. 

De derde wereld op je cv is een praktische en kritische gids om van je verblijf een echt onvergetelijke ervaring te maken. 

Foreign to Familiar

To prepare for the 'culture shock' when going abroad we very much advise you to read the book 'Foreign to Familiar' by Sarah Lanier. 

Foreign to Familiar is a splendidly written, well researched work on cultures. Anyone travelling abroad should not leave home without this valuable resource! Sarah's love and sensitivity for people of all nations will touch your heart. This book creates within us a greater appreciation for our extended families around the world and an increased desire to better understand them. 

Millions Saved: News Cases of Proven Success in Global Health

In a foreword to the book, Bill Gates says, “I encourage global health experts, policymakers, funders, and anyone else interested in helping create a better world to read Millions Saved. I am confident you will come away with a clearer sense of what the world has learned about fighting some of our biggest health challenges—and how we can use that knowledge to save even more lives.” 

Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health chronicles the global health revolution from the ground up, showcasing twenty-two local, national, and regional health programs that have been part of this global change. The book profiles eighteen remarkable cases in which large-scale efforts to improve health in low- and middle-income countries succeeded, and four examples of promising interventions that fell short of their health targets when scaled-up in real world conditions. Each case demonstrates how much effort—and sometimes luck—is required to fight illness and sustain good health. 

Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present

A “brilliant and sobering” (Paul Kennedy, Wall Street Journal) look at the history and human costs of pandemic outbreaks

The World Economic Forum #1 book to read for context on the coronavirus outbreak

Epidemics and Society is a sweeping exploration of the impact of epidemic diseases looks at how mass infectious outbreaks have shaped society, from the Black Death to today, and in a new preface addresses the global threat of COVID-19. In a clear and accessible style, Frank M. Snowden reveals the ways that diseases have not only influenced medical science and public health, but also transformed the arts, religion, intellectual history, and warfare. 

A multidisciplinary and comparative investigation of the medical and social history of the major epidemics, this volume touches on themes such as the evolution of medical therapy, plague literature, poverty, the environment, and mass hysteria. In addition to providing historical perspective on diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and tuberculosis, Snowden examines the fallout from recent epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola and the question of the world’s preparedness for the next generation of diseases. 

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History

#1 New York Times bestseller

“Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes.com

"Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."—Chicago Tribune 

The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. 

Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart."   

At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. 

Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It

An international bestseller, the fast-paced and gripping account of the Great Flu Epidemic of 1918 from acclaimed science journalist Gina Kolata, now featuring a new epilogue about avian flu.

When we think of plagues, we think of AIDS, Ebola, anthrax spores, and, of course, the Black Death. But in 1918 the Great Flu Epidemic killed an estimated forty million people virtually overnight. If such a plague returned today, taking a comparable percentage of the US population with it, 1.5 million Americans would die.

In Flu, Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. From Alaska to Norway, from the streets of Hong Kong to the corridors of the White House, Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen and probes the fear that has impelled government policy.

A gripping work of science writing, Flu addresses the prospects for a great epidemic’s recurrence and considers what can be done to prevent it. 

Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future

It’s on the televisions, in the papers and in our minds. Every day we’re bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is – financial collapse, unemployment, growing poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. But the rarely acknowledged reality is that our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.

Examining official data from the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, political commentator Johan Norberg traces just how far we have come in tackling the issues that define our species. While it's true that not every problem has been solved, we do now have a good idea of the solutions and we know what it will take to see this progress continue. Dramatic, uplifting and counter-intuitive, Progress is a call for optimism in our pessimistic, doom-laden world. 

The Practice of Internal Medicine in the Tropics 

Tropical Medicine has changed over time from colonial medicine with focus mainly on exotic, parasitic diseases transmitted by a vector, into a broad specialty including infectious diseases, HIV medicine, emerging infections, travel medicine, neglected tropical diseases and non-communicable diseases. While in each region the pathology encountered may differ, one common characteristic is that in most areas resources are limited. This book aims to fill a gap by discussing cases, most of which may be encountered every day, that are managed using a thorough clinical assessment. This is done against the background of sound knowledge of the local epidemiology while at the same time making responsible use of the often limited support services. While the cases were collected in Malawi, the principles discussed may well apply elsewhere and provide guidance for students and doctors in other tropical areas. Tropical Medicine is nowadays best understood as the practice of internal medicine in a tropical environment. 

Medical Spanish Dictionary 

(Compulsory for students going to Colombia, Cuba and Ecuador)

"Great medical bilingual dictionary. It includes the necessary medical terminology as well as many common words and verbs which might be helpful in explaining treatment, or foods to avoid for example."