Department Of Community Health.

Who are we?

Department of Community Health

What do we do?

The Department of Community Health conducts most of its work out of two separate Units: the main unit at MUHAS campus, Dar es Salaam is concerned with theoretical teaching and research, while the communities in the regions closer to Dar es Salaam are used as a practicum site. During Community Medicine Rotation students visit dispensaries, Health centers, District Hospitals and learn the way these health facility levels differ in terms of service provision.

The programmes and courses we conduct/offer

1. MD/DDS/BSc Environmental Health Sciences
2. Environmental Health Sciences
3. MPH Regular Track
4. MPH Executive track
5. Master of Bioethics
6. MMed Community Health programme

The Department of Community Health teaches a nutrition course for semester 4 MD, DDS and BSc EHS students, prepares, coordinates and supervises their second year nutrition field practical and family case studies. It also teaches MD Semester 6 on the communicable disease control course and contributes in teaching nutrition course for the BSc Environmental Health students. For the undergraduate programmes, the department hosts the MD semester 7/8 community medicine rotations. The Department has one postgraduate programme, the Master of Medicine (Community Health) but the faculty is also involved in teaching several MPH courses offered by the School of Public Health and Social Sciences.

 The departmental research agenda

1. Research on special public health issues (HIV, Malaria, TB, Neglected Tropical Diseases)
2. Public Health aspects in Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Children, and Adolescent (RMNCA) health
3. Public Health Nutrition and Non Communicable Diseases
4. Immunization and Vaccine Development
5. Health seeking behavior for malaria and HIV
6. Process quality of care for at risk pregnant women attending district hospitals in Tanzania
7. Impact of climate change on nutrition
8. Health systems research

Internal and external collaborators and partners

The Department of Community Health collaborates with several institutions in and outside the country including the Harvard University- School of Public Health, Cornell University- Division of Nutritional Sciences in the US; Sokoine University of Agriculture-Department of Food Sciences, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, the Nelson Mandela Institute of Technology, KarolinskaInstitutet, Gothenberg University (Sweden); University of Western Cape (South Africa), University of Great Lakes (Kenya).

Students teaching, learning and services for students within the department as well as outcomes

Among undergraduates and postgraduate students we mentor some students assigned to us through the School of Public Health and Social Sciences and School of Medicine.

A group of Semester 7 students visiting  a water source in the village