The Department of Medical Microbiology is located in the School of Medicine at the College of Health Sciences. It is the mother of two institutes dealing with infectious diseases at the College of Health Sciences namely the University of Nairobi Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (UNITID) and Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR.
It serves the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dental Sciences. Besides teaching undergraduate students of these schools, the department teaches medical microbiology to postgraduate students from departments of Pathology, Surgery and UNITID. The department’s Master of Science degree programme in Medical Microbiology covers medical parasitology, bacteriology, mycology, medical virology, entomology, molecular biology and immunology. Student dissertations for the Masters degree can be based on any of these broad areas of medical microbiology. The department also offers PhD programmes by research and thesis in these areas. In addition to training quality healthcare professionals in carrying out creative and innovative research, out creative and innovative research, the department also provides reliable diagnostic services to patients from Kenyatta National Hospital and other health institutions.
The Department has played and continues to play a crucial role in infectious disease research and in particular HIV/AIDS and in this regard does collaborative research with the Universities of Washington, Manitoba and Toronto.
Some of the past prominent faculty members in the Department include the Late Prof. Isaac Wamola, the Late Prof. Jeckonia Ndinya-Achola, the Late Prof. Job Bwayo, the Late Prof. Hannington Pamba and Prof. Richard Knight.
