Welcome to Global Health: An Interdisciplinary Overview! This course consists of the course guides, including discussion forum activities and assessments, along with presentations by a range of presenters, from the University of Geneva, The Graduate Institute, WHO, UNDP, WTO, IUCN, Medicines Patent Pool, among others. You will benefit from the insights and perspectives of multiple contributors involved in global health research, teaching, policy and practice across disciplines and sectors. Your enjoyment and benefits from the course will above all depend on your participation within this course, and we very much look forward to your participation through the discussion forums. Enjoy the course!

This module will introduce the concept of global health. Global health is a relatively new field and there is currently some debate over its definition.

There are 7 parts to module 3. Lessons 3 & 4 are both introductory sections that describe key concepts necessary to understand infectious diseases and how we deal with them. Lesson 5 constitutes the core lesson of module 3. This lesson focuses on the current global situation and future challenges for the most prominent infectious diseases of the world. In lessons 6-9 we discuss neglected tropical diseases, re-emerging infectious diseases and epidemics/pandemics. Finally, lesson 10 and 10b summarize module 3 in a set of key conclusions.

In this module we consider the rise of non-communicable (NCDs) diseases across countries, along with mental disorders and disability.