Department Of Epidemiology And Biostatistics.

The Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics contributes to the vision of the University through teaching, research and consultancy. Currently, the department has two professors, four senior lecturers, four lecturers and one computer technician.

Training: Epidemiology and Biostatistics are core subjects taught to all undergraduate and postgraduate students at the university. The department also hosts two postgraduate programmes at the University in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare: Master of Science in Applied Epidemiology; and Master of Science in Epidemiology and Laboratory Management.

Research: Members of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics are engaged in research on a variety of health and methodological problems including dietary data assessment methods. Main areas of research include HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Health Systems Research and Governance, gender studies and violence against women and children, Reproductive and Child Health, Zoonotic diseases,curriculum development, Non-Communicable Diseases, Disease Surveillance using Health and Demographic surveillance systems and policy issues.

Consultancy/services: Members of the department are heavily involved providing technical support to students, staff and research projects within and outside MUHAS. Examples include secondary data analysis for evaluation of the Global Health Fund 5-year Evaluation study.

Members of the department also have a great wealth of experience working as consultants with a large number of agencies including Family Care International (FCI), UNICEF, World Health Organisaztion (WHO), UNFPA, GTZ, ECSA-HC and Management Sciences for Health (MSH).

Short courses

The department is also involved in organizing and conducting short courses to meet the needs of in-service personnel and other health system stakeholders. Short courses hosted by the department include Research Methodology, Data Management, Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Health Programmes and Introduction to Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Staff of the department also assist in coordinating or facilitation of short courses organised by other partners. These include training on Disaster Response and Management, Non-Communicable Diseases, HIV/TB co-infection epidemiology and operations research, xxxx…..In the near future the department is planning to begin short courses in Epidemiology of Tropical Diseases and Epidemiology of Nutrition in Health.

Links: The department has strong linkages with national and international institutions such as the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Cooperatives, Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, University of Bergen, University of Umea, Sweden, Harvard School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, WHO, AMREF, CDC and GTZ.

Future plans

The department is planning to establish a masters degree programme in quantitative methods in the near future.  The department also plans to recruit additional staff so as to effectively perform the core functions of the university.