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Unit of study_

FMHU5000: Infection Prevention and Disease Control

2025 unit information

This unit provides students with an understanding of the individual and societal risks of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) wherever they occur, including community settings, and the rationale for, and barriers to, their prevention and control. The unit builds on a basic understanding of medical microbiology, epidemiology and infectious diseases and explores important contemporary concepts to the science and practice of infection prevention and control. The unit examines contemporary definitions of HAIs, their significance to individual, societal and population health, how they are transmitted and the science and practice of interrupt this transmission using infection prevention and control. Topics include the use of standard and transmission-based precautions, outbreak management and the challenges that are associated with antimicrobial resistance and the management of emerging and high-consequence infectious diseases.

Unit details and rules

Managing faculty or University school:

Medicine and Health

Study level Postgraduate
Academic unit Public Health
Credit points 6
Prerequisites:
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None
Corequisites:
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None
Prohibitions:
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PUBH5421
Assumed knowledge:
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Students are assumed to have a basic understanding of medical microbiology, epidemiology and common infectious diseases

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

  • LO1. Define and describe contemporary healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and their associated risk factors.
  • LO2. Describe the principles of infection prevention and control, and explore major barriers to optimal implementation strategies to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections
  • LO3. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the major microbial causes of HAIs, including modes of transmission and organism-specific risk factors and preventive strategies.
  • LO4. Demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of, and skills in, standard and transmission-based precautions and their use to prevent and control HAIs.
  • LO5. Design and critique protocols for the investigation into the causes and sources of HAI outbreaks and evaluate interventions designed to reduce the incidence of HAIs.
  • LO6. Critique factors contributing to the spread of communicable diseases and antimicrobial resistance in healthcare and effective contemporary strategies for prevention and containment.

Unit availability

This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.

The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.

Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2024
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2025
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Outline unavailable
Session MoA ?  Location Outline ? 
Semester 2 2022
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney
Semester 2 2023
Online Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

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Modes of attendance (MoA)

This refers to the Mode of attendance (MoA) for the unit as it appears when you’re selecting your units in Sydney Student. Find more information about modes of attendance on our website.