This presentation aims to increase the students’ knowledge about environmental epidemiology, by introducing different study designs used to study health effects of exposure to outdoor air pollution. All study designs are illustrated by examples, starting with the Great Smog (Killer Fog) of London in 1952, one of the landmarks in environmental epidemiology.

Nearly one third of the world’s population are exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution from the household’s use of solid fuel. The fuel is mainly biomass burning under poor combustion conditions
in open fires or primitive stoves and with low ventilation. This costs more than 4 million lives every year and enormous suffering in particular among women and children.

What is air pollution? What is it in the air that is harmful? This lecture focuses on air pollution, where it occur, and how it spread.

In this presentation, we will describe the global levels and trends in major air pollutants and related health burden. Air pollution is an important global risk factor for disease. People who live in more polluted areas develop more often chronic and infectious disease and die prematurely as compared to people living in areas with low air pollution.

In large part of the World, people spend more than 90 percent of the time in indoor environments, where air quality is important for health. The environment outside the building, what goes on inside the building and the exchange of air pollutants affects the indoor air. Tight buildings can reduce energy consumption and entry of outdoor air pollutants, but unless ventilation is right indoor air pollutants from combustion processes, dampness, microbes, the dwellers bio effluents,
appliances, care and cleaning products, clothing, furniture, building materials, the underground and many other sources will build up indoors causing important health effects.

In this presentation, we will discuss how we can know whether one individual is more susceptible to harmful effect of air pollution than others are. Everyone is exposed, but some groups may be more susceptible to the harmful effect of air pollution than others may.

In this lecture, we will describe the mechanisms by which air pollution causes pulmonary health effects in the human population. The pulmonary health effects include exacerbation of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), increased risk of lower
respiratory tracts infections and lung cancer.

In this presentation, we will describe the mechanisms by which air pollution causes health effects in other parts of the body than the lungs. In continuation of this, we will discuss the important mechanisms of extra pulmonary health effect.

There is a long way before the whole world complies with the WHO guidelines for air quality, but the enormous burden of disease from outdoor air pollution forces us to increase action to come as far as possible. In continuation of this, we will discuss what we can do about air pollution at global, international, national, city and individual levels. Most of the actions to reduce air pollution also mitigates climate change and/or promote health in other ways – so there are many win-win and
win-win-win situations

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Since its appearance in late 2019, COVID-19 has caused well over one million deaths worldwide. Large-scale testing and contact tracing remain critical for controlling viral spread. Complying with the US CDC and WHO protocols for sample collection requires a ready supply of inexpensive swabs and collection reagents. Unfortunately, CDC-approved clinical-grade sampling supplies are expensive, and additionally, current methods prevent further analysis of the microbiome due to the presence of antibiotics in viral transport media. Researchers sought out new testing supplies in a recent study comparing five consumer-grade swabs and one clinical-grade swab. They found that using 95% ethanol instead of viral transfer media reduced RNase activity, preserving samples for microbiome analysis, and extracting directly from the swab head instead of the surrounding liquid resulted in 2-4x higher RNA recovery than the clinical standard..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Here you can find web lectures on Global Child Health. The first presentation gives an overview of the historical development, describing the "child survival revolution" and the challenges we see today. The following web lectures describe more in detail different interventions that could save lives and improve childhood development. THe web lectures can be used all together or seperately.You will also find PDF-files with teh presentation slides here.

Here you can find web lectures discussing different aspects of health systems thinking.The first lecture is about the WHO health system building blocks, outlining this theoretical framework compromising of Leadership/Governance, Health workforce, Medical technologies, Financing, Information and Service delivery.The second lecture gives a historical background to the development and thinking aboiut health systems, outlining the different approaches over the past decades.The third lecture is on health financing and how this can be organised.The web lectures can be used seperately or as a package. You will also find pdf-files with the correponding powerpoint presentations

This series looks at the Oxford Martin School's academics and how their research is making a difference to our global future. The series will be of interest to people who are concerned about the future for the planet, how civilisation will adapt to emerging problems and issues such as climate change, over population, increased urbanisation of populations and the creation of vaccines to fight against future pandemics. The Oxford Martin School academics explain their various research topics in an accessible and thoughtful way and try to find practical solutions to these issues.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to course through communities around the world. While researchers have learned enough about the virus to build defenses, much remains unknown about how SARS-CoV-2 interacts with the immune system to cause disease. One promising target researchers are exploring is a process known as “T cell exhaustion.” During infection, disease-fighting T cells are recruited to areas where inflammation is taking place. These cells are virus-specific and represent one of the most critical defenses against SARS-CoV-2. Some patients with COVID-19, however, show significantly reduced T cell counts, impairing their ability to fight the disease. Although it’s unclear how T cell exhaustion occurs, numerous potential biomarkers of this process do exist. Among these is the protein PD-1, which helps T cells identify cells as friend or foe..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Case seminar text that can be used to discuss the epidemiological transition as well as to give the students a possibility to share their own experiences of working for a UN or government agency. By placing the scenario in Vietnam the students will have to read up on a country that has made great strides towards a healthier population while at the same time having to combat great disparities.

The aim of this presentation is to address different hot topics in our current understanding of aetiology as well as of the pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes. We’ll address how genetic as well as epi-genetic and non-genetic mechanisms may be involved in the complex mechanisms underlying type 2 diabetes. We’ll also introduce recent data suggesting that immature stem-cell functions are likely to play an important role for development of type 2 diabetes and its associated cardiometabolic disturbances. Finally we’ll address the current treatment options of disease with respect of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment modalities.

Course responsible: Associate Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, MD Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen & Professor Jens Juul Holst

This presentation address the multifactorial etiology of type 2 diabetes. The multifactorial etiology, can be divided into three major categories, primary predisposing factors, secondary precipitating factors, as well as tertiary accelerating factors.

Course responsible: Associate Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, MD Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen & Professor Jens Juul Holst

The aim of this presentation is to address and understand the paradigm shifting consequences of the Thrifty Phenotype Hypothesis as a conceptual framework to understand the roots of type 2 diabetes.

Course responsible: Associate Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, MD Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen & Professor Jens Juul Holst

During the last couple of decades two new remarkably successful principles for diabetes therapy have appeared and are now used worldwide. These are incretin based therapy and surgical therapy. These two are at some extent linked together and in this lecture we’ll provide an introduction to these two principles for diabetes therapy.

Course responsible: Associate Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, MD Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen & Professor Jens Juul Holst

In this presentation we’ll talk about the effects of GLP-1 (Glucagon Like Peptide 1), GLP-1 has important actions on gastrointestinal secretion and motility, and it acts to inhibit appetite and food intake. In continuation of the effects of GLP-1, we’ll talk about GLP-1, GIP, lipids, proteins, and dipeptidyl peptidase-4.

Course responsible: Associate Professor Signe Sørensen Torekov, MD Nicolai Wewer Albrechtsen & Professor Jens Juul Holst