Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Background History

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is one the departments in the Weill Bugando School of Medicine, CUHAS and runs a number of courses in both undergraduate and graduate programs like Microbiology and Immunology Course which is broadly divided into three modules namely General Bacteriology, Virology & Mycology and Immunology for MD2, BMLS2, BSNE 2, BScN 2 and BPharm 3 students.

Course Objectives of undergraduate programs ( MD, BMLS, BSNE , BScN and BPharm )

Describe the host-parasite-environment relationship in health and in microbial diseases
Be familiar with the general epidemiological aspects of microbial health problems and preventive measures of specific health problems with special reference to sub Saharan Africa.
Be familiar with collection and handling of appropriate specimens for microbiological investigation.
Be able to perform essential microbiological and immunological laboratory procedures used in determining etiology of common microbial and immunological health problems.
To enable them appreciate the role of the subject in problem solving in infectious diseases management, prevention and control.

Microbiology & Immunology Historical Perspectives

Microbiology & Immunology Historical Perspectives
On the 17th century, Antonie van Leewenhoek (1632-1723) made a ground breaking discovery of a microscope and described microorganisms as living creatures ‘animacules’; this led him to be known as the father of microbiology.

Community outreach activities

1.The Wound Care Project The Wound Care Project launched in March, 2015 is based on the provision of free wound nursing care, management and education to the street children dwelling in urban and rural Mwanza, Tanzania. It is conducted under the auspices of Tanzania Rural Health Movement (TRHM), a non-profit community organization under sponsorship of Bisou Bailey Foundation, previously known as a Little Help Foundation (California, USA), CUHAS (Mwanza, Tanzania) and Bethke Medical Consulting (Luebeck, Germany). The CUHAS Microbiology and Immunology department is directly involved in microbiological analysis of wounds to make sure the children receive the proper management including the right antimicrobial agents.

The Wound Care Project

2.Tanzania Summer Field School project Tanzania Summer Field School project is undertaken collaboratively between CUHAS (School of Public Health and Weill Bugando School of Medicine) and the University of Calgary, AB, Canada. The project has been conducted for over 8 years among Maasai in Ngorongoro Conservation Areas and is mainly involved (among other things) in addressing infectious diseases using one health approach (improving diagnosis and management of febrile illnesses, worm infestations and various issues related to water and sanitation).

Course Objectives of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSTIC MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

To produce graduate capable of performimng clinical microbiology and diagnostic molecular biology in health diagnostics, medical research fieldand industrial

Students' Research Support: the Department offer conducive environment for undergraduate and graduate students to conduct their elective research projects/dissertation research projects in the areas of infectious diseases. The diverse expertise of the departmental academic staff vested with tremendous experience ensure a considerable number of students accomplish their research successful each year.

A word from HoD

This platform forms a base of familiarization between members of the department with students, local and international researchers/scientists/academicians in the field of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology. The department aims at training undergraduate and postgraduate students to acquire sound knowledge and skills in the field of microbiology vested with moral and ethical values, as well as to produce research outputs with positive impacts on the wellbeing of the patients and the community at large. Furthermore, we aim at providing quality services in Clinical Microbiology in the lake zone regions.

Prof. Mariam M. Mirambo (BVM, MSc, Postgraduate Dipl., PhD)

Course Objectives for graduate programs(MMed1)

The department also offers this course for students taking Masters of Medicine in various specialties. The main objectives of this course are to enable graduate students to:

Describe major clinical syndromes and their etiological agents using current epidemiological information generated locally in relation with the global trends.
Describe basic principles in the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases by critically analyzing the cost effective diagnostic tools and antimicrobial therapeutic options available locally in relation to the existing options across the globe.
Describe the immunology of infectious diseases critically by delineating immunodiagnostics and novel immunotherapeutics especially for infectious diseases of public health importance in Tanzania.

Vital statistics

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DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY