قسم الطفيليات

Dear colleagues, students and guests.

I would like to welcome you to the website of parasitology department which is intended to be a portal to introduce to you the teaching and scientific activities of the department, as well as to give you information about the staff members.

The subject of parasitology is included in the curricula of infection, locomotor, blood, GIT, CNS, respiratory and urogenital modules for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd year undergraduate students. The subject is also taught as subsidiary in the diploma and master degrees of tropical, infectious diseases, microbiology and gastroenterology. The teaching activities include lectures, practical sessions, problem oriented sessions, self-directed learning and online teaching.

The department participates in the scientific activities of the Annual Ain Shams Medical Conferences as well as in the national and international specialized conferences. The department has conjoint scientific collaborations with national and international institutions, whereby many colleagues from national institutions have fulfilled their MSc, MD and PhD under the supervision of the department’s staff members. Also, many of the staff members have fulfilled their MD degrees in international institutions under conjoint supervision of with professors form USA, Germany, France, and Australia.  A monthly seminar on “updates in parasitology” is held in the department. The staff members have many publications in national and international indexed journals.

The department also takes place in the faculty community services including the campaigns and parasitology diagnostic services.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact the head of the department and staff members.

                   The Parasitolgy Department was one of the first academic sections established when the Faculty of Medicine was affiliated in 1947 to Cairo University. In 1950, the faculty became annexed together with 8 other faculties to the then called “Ibrahim Pasha University”; the 3^rd established university after Cairo University “(Fua’d the 1^st) and Alexandria University (Farouk the 1^st). In 1954 the name of the university was changed to “Heliopolis”, and then changed in the same year to its present name “Ain Shams”, the Arabic for “Heliopolis” or “O’n” which was the oldest university in history.

          The responsibility of founding the Parasitology Department fell on Professor Hussein F. Nagaty (1946-1961) who was the first chairperson. With a small number of staff each of whom later in time became chairpersons themselves, the department was established. At one time it was affiliated to the Tropical Medicine Department, and at another time to the Microbiology Department. But since 1983 it became an independent entity.

Medical Parasitology was taught to third year medical students and additionally to post graduates specializing in Parasitology , and as a subsidiary subject to post graduates specializing in Tropical Medicine, Clinical Pathology, Hygiene (now known as Community and Environmental and Occupational Medicine), as well as a subsidiary for Pathology and Microbiology. Accordingly the academic degrees granted to post graduates specializing in Parasitology were Diploma of Medical Science (D.Sc.) now known as Master of Science (M.Sc.) and Doctor of Medicine in Basic Sciences (PH.D.)

          Scientific research was always an important objective, where a number of projects on toxoplasmosis, toxocariasis, schistosomiasis, filariasis, were successfully carried out in cooperation with other faculty departments, Egyptian Ministry of health and international institutions.

Parasite strains of Plasmodium berghei, Toxoplasma gondii (virulent and avirulant strains), Trichinella spiralis, Strongyloides stercoralis, were maintained and used for research and diagnostic purposes, as well as the preparation of teaching material. Snail intermediate hosts of schistosomes were bred. Since 1984 the ‘Parasitological Research and Diagnostic Laboratory’ was established under the supervision of Prof. Magda E. Azab, as a unit for the diagnosing of parasitic infections in patients referred from the Ain Shams University Hospitals. This unit also helped in providing serological and parasitic material for training, examinations and research.

          Over the years a number of eminent scientists visited the department participating in scientific research and giving lectures.

Of those were Professor A. W. Woodruff, Professor P. C. Garnham, Professor W. Hutchison (the first to describe the life cycle of Toxoplasma gondii in the intestine of the cat),  Professor G. Piekarski, Dr. Kagan, Professor E. Scholtyseck, Professor A. Johnson and Professor K. W. Chang

Chair Persons

Since 1946

          According to their academic seniority the appointed chair persons who faithfully served and directed the department are:

ورش عمل

يهتم قسم الطفيليات بإعداد الكوادر الطبية الملمة بالأمراض الطفيلية وطرق الوقاية منها  والقادرة على تشخيص و علاج هذه الأمراض و ولهذا يقدم القسم ثلاث شهادات لطلبة الدراسات العليا بنظام الساعات المعتمدة هدفها تحضير هذه الكوادر للمنافسة في سوق العمل، وهذه البرامج هي:

• برنامج الدبلوم في الطفيليات: مدة الدراسة أربعة وعشرون شهراً أو أربعة فصول دراسية.
• برنامج الماجستير: مدة الدراسة أربعة وعشرون شهراً أو أربعة فصول دراسية و يشمل رسالة علمية.
• برنامج الدكتوراه: مدة الدراسة ستة وثلاثون شهراً أو ستة فصول دراسية ويشمل رسالة علمية.

The Parasitology Department aims at preparing medical personnel familiar with parasitic diseases and ways to prevent them and able to diagnose and treat these diseases. In order to achieve this aim, the department offers three postgraduate certificates with the credit hour system aimed at preparing these personnel for competition in the labour market.

Postgraduate certificates offered by the department:

• Dipolma in Parasitology: The duration of the study is twenty-four months or four semesters.
• Master degree in Parasitology (MSc): The duration of the study is twenty-four months or four semesters and includes a thesis.
• Medical doctorate in Parasitology (MD): The duration of the study is thirty-six months or six semesters and includes a thesis.