Infectious diseases occur as a result of interactions between microbial pathogens and their hosts. The Infectious Diseases minor is a multidisciplinary pathway of study that emphasises how infectious agents interact with human hosts at the molecular, cellular, individual patient and community levels to cause disease.

This minor begins with developing an understanding of the relevance of infectious diseases within the concept of ‘One Health’ in which the multifactorial interrelationships between human, animal and environmental health are critical. Central is the context of microbes: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protists being beneficial for good health as well as effective causative agents of disease. The structural and functional cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable establishment and progression of infectious diseases are covered with a particular focus on pathogens: microbial virulence mechanisms; their capacity to evade the human response to injury and infection; their ability to cause tissue damage; their resistance to antimicrobial therapy and the development of new tools to control infectious agents. This progresses to explore patterns of incidence and the epidemiology of outbreaks of infectious diseases within communities.