Vaccinology education is crucial to fighting infectious diseases. Yet vaccinology information is often scattered across several courses offered in medical and nursing schools. These include infectious diseases, paediatrics, immunology, pharmacology, pharmacovigilance and public health modules.
Bringing these topics together helps students of medicine and health sciences to focus on all aspects of vaccinology, and may even help improve health professionals’ ability to understand and communicate with patients about vaccine-preventable diseases.
The Vaccinology Summer School at the University of Antwerp aims to fill a gap in mainstream medical education by offering an intensive course covering everything from immunology to communication about vaccination.
We spoke to Prof Pierre Van Damme and Dr Elke Leuridan about their course and what students like most about it. They discuss how the students value the content and the connections they make through the course, as well as plans to bring the course to more people.