HST.434: Evolution of an Epidemic

Understanding the ongoing global AIDS epidemic and the drivers of new infections is best understood in context, which is the rationale for a course now being taught by Dr. Bruce Walker, Director of the Ragon Institute, together with Dr. Howard Heller from MIT.  The course, sponsored through Health Sciences and Technology (HST.434) is taught each January to between 20 and 25 MIT undergraduates, who travel to the heart of the epidemic in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.  The course examines the medical, scientific, public health policy and advocacy responses to a new disease, by focusing on the evolution of the AIDS epidemic. It begins with a review of how this new disease was first detected in the US, followed by the scientific basis as to how HIV causes profound dysfunction of the body’s immune defense mechanisms, the rational development of drugs, the challenge of an HIV vaccine, and how patient advocacy and public health policy decisions have influenced the course of the global epidemic. Below, a video about the course provides more details regarding the focus and impact of the class on the students who participate.