Health Curriculum

Fighting Disease:
Health At The End Of The Millennium
Another Wired Curriculum from The United Nations CyberSchoolBus

Consider this...

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FACT:
Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. Of 52.2 million deaths in 1997, at least 17.3 million were due to infectious diseases.

FACT:
Thirty new diseases have been identified over the past 20 years, among them the deadly Ebola and HIV/AIDS.

FACT:
In the long history of struggle against infectious diseases, humans have only managed to conquer one: smallpox, which was declared eradicated in 1980.

HOPE:
Polio, already eliminated from the western hemisphere, is targeted for global eradication by the year 2000.

What will world health look like at the end of the millennium?
Who will be infected, who's likely to be safe? What is the relation between poverty and disease? Will we eradicate other diseases? What are these new viruses?

But wait, let's take it from the beginning. What are infectious diseases anyway? What are viruses and bacteria? How do we defend against them?

These are the kinds of questions - basic and of global importance - that will be explored and, in some cases, answered in these units.

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Questions sent in by students have been answered in detail by Dr Stephen Corber of the Pan American Health Organization
Click away on a colourful quiz - all levels
The Pan American Health Organization has a great web site with lots of interesting materials: check out their quicktime videos; look at the public service announcements; review some of their photos and read their press releases for the latest updates. All in their media center.
Unit 6, the last unit, is uploaded with full graphics.
Read the transcript of our Live Chat with WHO.
Everything you always wanted to know about infectious diseases: the disease list has the agents, symptoms, treatments, global incidence and more...
Classes have posted their definitions of health and you can compare them to WHO's.
It's not too late: if you have a definition of health you want others to read, post it on the discussion board.
Articles from around the world on epidemics, treatment, immunization and more.
Epidemiological Map: Through the project we will all participate in constructing a disease and vaccination map based on information you gather from your region. Read the main Basic Activity.
If you want to receive updates and text versions of units by e-mail, write to us at cyberschoolbus@un.org and in the subject field type "Health".
Enjoy the curriculum!