News Release

The germ trade: Epid 543 students make trading cards for exotic infectious diseases.

June 22, 2005 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

Sonja Gerrard ANN ARBOR, Mich.--- The course description for Epid 543 tells University of Michigan School of Public Health students that they will examine "the nature of viruses, including replication, transmission, pathogenesis, pathology, antigenic relationships and preventive measures." Students in the 2005 winter term also gained experience in the "germ trade," by designing trading cards for 24 exotic infectious diseases.

Sonja Gerrard, an assistant professor of epidemiology and an active researcher in emerging Bunyaviral and tropical diseases, came up with the trading card assignment to teach her students how to research viral diseases. She also wanted them to learn how to generate awareness about public health issues through effective communication.

Gerrard says she would like to see the concept used on a larger level to educate people in America about agents causing disease in the developing world that don't receive much coverage in the news.

"We hear about Ebola," Gerrard says. "We don't hear about Chandipura and Omsk hemorrhagic fever."

Contact: Terri Mellow, UM SPH director of communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu