Programmes

About Course

1. Preamble

This MSc in Environmental Health seeks to develop competencies in Post graduate students to better respond to epidemiological, environmental, and other health challenges that hinder development and threaten the survival of mankind. The program seeks to impart knowledge in these students on the theory and practice of assessing, correcting, controlling, and preventing those factors in the environment that can potentially affect adversely the health of present and future generations.

2. Expected Outcome

Upon completing the requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Environmental Health, graduates should be able to:

• Evaluate the role that the environment plays in human health
• Communicate the basic characteristics of major chemical, physical, and biological hazards and the properties that govern the hazards’ behaviour in the environment.
• Explain the scientific characteristics (route of exposure, dose response, mode of action) of major biological, chemical, and physical hazards that result in human health risk;
• Apply risk assessment methodologies and management strategies to complex environmental health issues
• Analyse and interpret environmental health data.
• Identify appropriate intervention strategies for specific environmental health problems and
• Communicate the results of a scientific study in a written and oral format.

3. Entry Requirements

Candidates with a BSc Honours Degree in Environmental Science and Health or Bachelor of Environmental Science Honours Degree in Public Health or any other related field with at least a lower Second class will normally be eligible for admission into the programme.

4. Duration of the Degree Programme and Mode of Study

The programme shall run in synchronisation with the Block Release Programmes at NUST. The duration of the programme shall be twenty-four (24) months. It shall be offered on Block Release

over two (2) Stages. The programme will comprise of two blocks in each stage and each block will have four (4) weeks of class contact. Teaching and learning will continue in the form of assignments in between the blocks. The taught courses offered shall run for a total of 58 hours class contact each i.e., 29 hrs lecture time, 10 hours tutorials and 19 hours practicals. The project leading to a dissertation shall run for twelve (12) months.

DEGREE STRUCTURE

The programme shall consist of twelve (12) taught courses and a dissertation that are offered in two stages. A student shall be expected to register for four courses in the first and second block of stage I, two courses and dissertation in the first block and second Blocks of Stage II. The dissertation may be undertaken either in the Department, Industry or any other Institution approved by the Departmental Board.

CURRICULUM STRUCTURE

STAGE ONE

Block I

EEH 5101 Food Safety Management

EEH 5102 Environmental Protection and Health

EEH 5103 Communicable Diseases

EEH 5104 Housing and Health

Block II

EEH 5201 Epidemiological Modelling

EEH 5202 Research Methods and Biostatistics

EEH 5203 Environmental Engineering

EEH 5204 Occupational Health and Safety

STAGE TWO

Block I

EEH 6101 Health Systems Management

EEH 6102 Climate and Environmental Change

EEH 6100 Dissertation

Block II

EEH 6201 Geographic Information System for Health

EEH 6100 Dissertation

ELECTIVES

Choose One Elective Course

EEH 6203 Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Health

EEH 6204 One Health

EEH 6205 Non-Communicable Diseases

COURSE EVALUATION

Parts of a course may be examined independently during the studies. Both the continuous assessment which shall comprise 40% (20% practicals and 20% assignments and tests) of the overall mark for that part, and the written examination (comprising 60%) shall aggregate to the final mark for the whole course. Continuous assessments for courses without a practical component shall contribute 40% i.e., assignments and tests and 60% written examination. The examination assessment shall be by a three-hour written paper at the end of the block. To pass a course a student must have obtained an overall mark of 50% and at least 40% in the final written examination. To pass the Dissertation, a student must obtain a minimum overall mark of 50%, with the dissertation report contributing 90% and the oral presentation contributing 10%. The Dissertation shall contribute 30% of the overall mark for the degree classification.

DETERMINATION OF RESULTS

To be eligible for the award of the MSc Degree in Environmental Health, a student shall be required to pass all the courses registered for including dissertation.

DEGREE CLASSIFICATION

The weighting of the components of the degree shall be:

Average of all taught courses 70%

Dissertation 30%

The following scheme shall be used for the courses and overall degree classification:

Mark Grade

0- 49% Fail

50-60% Pass

61-70% Credit

71-79 Merit

80-100% Distinction

PROCEED, REPEAT AND WITHDRAW

Students will be required to pass Stage I before proceeding to Stage II. A student may proceed to stage II if he/she has passed all the courses or when carrying only one course. A student shall not be allowed to proceed to stage II with two or more failed courses in stage I. A student who passes 50% of the taught courses at the end of a stage and has attained a minimum aggregate of 50% may apply to repeat failed courses in that stage. A student who fails more than 50% of the courses in a stage shall withdraw. A student who passes all twelve (12) taught courses but fails the dissertation may apply to repeat the Dissertation. If the student fails when repeating the dissertation, he /she shall be awarded a post graduate diploma in Environmental Health. A student who fails a course but has passed the Dissertation may be allowed to repeat the failed course once. If the student fails when repeating the course, he /she shall be awarded a post graduate diploma in Environmental Health.

COURSE SYNOPSES

Food Safety Management

Biological, chemical, and physical contaminants that cause ill-health, or infringe on consumer rights. Technology of food production and packaging. Examination of food commodities for quality and safety. Good Hygiene Practice and Good Manufacturing Practice for quality control. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and the application of a food safety management system; quality assurance as a business’ response to food safety risk. Legislation pertaining to food safety and food standards (codex alimentarius). Multi-disciplinary approach in control of food-borne illnesses.

Environmental Protection and Health

Differences between environmental health and public health, Environmental exposure and specific health outcomes in humans (use of animals as a means to understand possible health outcomes in humans due to contamination exposure); Conducting randomized controlled trials and other experimental studies on animal and plant subjects; Bioaccumulation; Biomagnification, Identification of various environmental health hazards e.g. chemical, biological and physical, and their potential impacts on human health. Health and environmental controls to ensure food, water, air and general environmental quality. The mechanisms in environmental and health protection such as law enforcement, monitoring and measurement, environmental impact assessments, risks assessments and toxicity testing. The legislative, policy and institutional frameworks for environmental and health protection.

Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases epidemiology and comparisons and evaluations of disease burden between different countries. Critical evaluation of main diseases spread by poor sanitation and contamination of drinking water like cholera. A critical evaluation of the major vector borne diseases including Malaria, Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) and Ebola. Impact of pneumonia on health of children in developing countries. Global spread of HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) and their impacts on human population. The WHO neglected tropical disease strategy. Case studies of control/mitigation of the above diseases. Migration and urbanisation impact on disease prevalence; Zoonoses; Health protection with emphasis on disease control as well as protection from environmental hazards. Emergency preparedness and response planning

Epidemiological Modelling

Basic epidemiological concepts, mathematical modelling, model building, mathematical modelling in public health, epidemiological modelling, simple deterministic models, intervention models, modelling of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, Model validation, simple stochastic models, data collection and basic statistical treatment of data, Geographical information systems in epidemiology, remote sensing.

Housing and Health

Types of housing and construction, site plan approval and inspection process, common building defects and their impacts on human health. Effects of housing on wetlands. The application of housing legislation to the maintenance and improvement of the housing stock. Role of local authority is service delivery and housing stock. Risk assessment in determination of the suitability for occupation. The assessment and management of indoor air quality and its impact on health. Environmental noise, indoor radiation and their impact on health and their control. Eco – design and housing for eco – cities; Water supply, alternative urban water supply such as boreholes. Drainage and sewage reticulation systems (eco–effectiveness; designs; maintenance and assessment).

Research Methods and Biostatistics

Research, research types, Research planning and design, Project Proposal, Data collection techniques, Literature review, Research techniques, Methodology and Methods, Sampling techniques, Validity and reliability, Ethical issues in Information systems Research, Statistical analysis. An introduction to the basic concepts of biostatistics and its importance in public health. Understanding the different types of data in public health. How to compute and interpret the most used descriptive and inferential statistics. Measures of central tendency, dispersion, and graphical methods. Hypothesis testing, power, and sample size estimation in epidemiological studies. Sampling and the interpretation of p values and confidence intervals. Analysis of numerical and categorical outcomes for example comparisons of means and proportions. Understand and interpret relative risks and odds ratios when comparing two populations. Difference between parametric and non-parametric methods. Understand and interpret results from Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), a technique used to compare means amongst more than two independent populations. Introduction to linear and logistic regression. Research report writing.

Environmental Engineering

Principles of designing of municipal or local portable water supply and wastewater treatment systems e.g., conventional systems etc.; Assessment of and improvement of efficiencies of the water and wastewater treatment systems; Sewage and health issues; Other liquid waste treatment technologies (Ventilated Improved Latrines (VIPs), Aqua-privy, Septic tanks); Application of engineering principles to improve the environmental quality (air, water, land); Environmental engineering law. Environmental impact of proposed construction projects; Water conservation strategies and virtual water supplies

Occupational Health and Safety

Occupational ergonomics: anthropometry, working postures, task analysis, manual materials handling, lifting equations, and environmental factors. Upon completion, students should be able to recognize ergonomic problems and recommend appropriate control measures. Occupational Safety: Accident investigation, Workers Compensation, record keeping, training, machine guarding, facilities, personal protection, and fire protection. Workplace psychology: Psychosocial epidemiology. Work based study of sources of stress. Measurement of occupational stress. Application of moderator variables and coping strategies.

Health Systems Management

Health leadership, partnership working, change management and performance management. The nature of governance and the legal system in Zimbabwe. Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and asset-based mapping, Health Impact Assessments. Health and wellbeing commissioning. Health inequalities within and between countries. Policy and strategy development in health. Interventions, programmes and services to improve health. Evaluation and monitoring of health interventions like Water, Sanitation and Health. Current developments in health research, policy and practice and intervention strategies, risk assessment, health impact assessment and social impact assessment.

Climate and Environmental Change

Adaptation strategies both at a global and localised level in mitigating health impacts of change. Debate on environmental change; Causation and mapping out indicators of change; explanation of recurrent extreme weather condition for example storms, droughts. International response. Impacts on health delivery especially in developing countries; Environmental justice within the context of the north-south debate. Micro-climatic changes and the localised impacts on plants, animals and aquatic ecosystem and food security; The carbon footprint; Impact of water scarcity; land and forest degradation; Appreciation of Climate Change Models

Non-Communicable Diseases

This course will address the health transition from communicable to non-communicable diseases occurring in developing countries including Zimbabwe and the subsequent “double burden” of disease. Understanding the disease burden of major non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease and their risk factors such as diet, exercise, tobacco, alcohol and other environmental exposures such as pesticides and air pollutants which are responsible for considerable morbidity and premature mortality globally and locally. The course aims to provide students with the ability to critically evaluate evidence for causation and the (cost)-effectiveness of NCD control in populations. The strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of different population approaches to NCD prevention and control will be assessed.

Dissertation

This module seeks to consolidate and enable students to practically apply research techniques they would have learnt throughout the course. This module allows students to demonstrate different research skills such as: writing styles and skills (grammatical errors, formats and logical writing), individual approach to a research project (originality and ability to identify viable research questions), usage and critique of literature to justify necessity of proposed research, identification and recruitment of data sources, data collection tools and techniques including consideration of research ethics, analytic skills and interpretation of data, time management and responsibility.

Geographic Information System (GIS) for Environmental Health

Overview of principles of GIS. Basic principles and potential benefits of GIS in environmental health domain. Spatial and attribute environmental health data direct and indirect capture, integration and organisation in a GIS (Data capture devices/equipment (e.g., GPS) and other mobile applications e.g., KoboCollect), Geocoding survey and other health data; Geodatabases, Cloud storage). Geospatial analysis to understand the complex spatio-temporal relationships between diseases and socio-demographic, institutional, developmental, climate and natural environmental factors using geospatial analyses; Environmental pollution and disease and identifying exposures to environmental hazards (Bivariate, Cluster, Hotspot analysis, modelling); GIS software and applications (Mobile, Web-based, Proprietary and FOSS); Geovisualisation of environmental health phenomena (risk mapping high-risk populations for effective environmental and public health management program. Using practical case studies in development of GIS based solutions to environmental health problems.

Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Health

Knowledge systems (general perspective, Global knowledge matrix) Nonformal local or “indigenous” knowledge; special characteristics of indigenous knowledge systems (IKS), the nature of indigenous knowledge (IK) and indigenous technology (IT); preserving indigenous knowledge, indigenous knowledge systems and the intellectual property, protecting indigenous knowledge against inappropriate patents. the role Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation Systems for public health in Africa. International programmes that collect and attempt to analyse and streamline IKS (World Bank indigenous knowledge systems initiatives) application of IKS in public health; Challenges of utilisation of IKS in public health; Indigenous knowledge and colonisation (the discourse); working with indigenous knowledge in research. IKS and public health in Zimbabwe; Gender; Social inclusion

One Health

Globalisation, rapid human population growth, environmental changes have resulted in the increasing global spread of old and emerging diseases and other health challenges. Recognition that illnesses spread faster than ever due to interconnected ecosystems and the close ties between humans and animals calls for the ‘One Health’ approach. This course seeks to introduce ‘One Health’ as a trans-disciplinary systems concept connecting human, animal, and environmental health. History and evolution of 'One Health' and other related concepts (e.g., ecohealth and planetary health) will be discussed. This concept provides a useful framework for examining Zimbabwe’s complex health issues such as food safety and security, emerging zoonotic and vector-borne diseases, antimicrobial resistance, environmental contamination, and other health threats shared by people, animals, and the environment. A case-based approach will be utilised to explore integrated approaches to assessment and control of several health issues at the human-animal-environment interface. Furthermore, the successful application of One Health principles in control of emerging infectious diseases and other health in different parts of the world will be reviewed