Entitled “International Disease,” the course is offered as part of SPEA’s health administration program.

“This course will help students understand why HIV is not a Chinese problem or an American problem or an African problem. It’s a global problem,” said visiting associate professor Professor Allen Anderson, who teaches the course.

Anderson returned last week from the Jilin province of northern China. Since 1990 Anderson has assisted Chinese health officials in developing AIDS prevention programs.

Anderson researches the AIDS epidemic in China and its spread among four groups: prostitutes, drug users, health care workers, and the “floating population” of 120 million Chinese who migrate from rural areas to big cities in search of employment.

“These diseases know no national boundaries. We’re moving into a new era of disease. HIV is an example of that, SARS is another, and now maybe we’re seeing it with the avian flu in Vietnam. These diseases reach worldwide. What happens in China will eventually have an impact on us. So the sooner we start taking a global perspective on disease, the better off we’ll all be.”

Anderson explained that an international exposure is an essential component of any health administration program. “Anyone interested in health administration today must understand the economic, political and social conditions behind the global spread of disease.”