About Department

The Department of Microbiology and Clinical Parasitology is one of the main preclinical departments at the College of Medicine, King Khalid University. It was established in 1400 AH (1980 AD), four years after the establishment of the faculty, according to Royal approval No. 3/m/3806 on 19/02/1400 A.H (08/01/1980AD). The department is entitled for teaching theoretical and practical classes in four basic specialties: Bacteriology and Mycology, Virology, Parasitology and Medical Entomology, and Immunology.

VISION, MISSION AND VALUES

VISION:

To be recognized as a center of excellence for distinctive interdisciplinary education and advanced innovative scientific research in clinical microbiology, infectious diseases, and immunology.

MISSION:

To impart high-impact competency based education with an integrated approach and foster innovative research in a diverse and inclusive environment by exploring scientific domains in microbiology and immunology while transforming discoveries into therapies against infectious diseases, immune disorders, and cancers for benefiting the community.

VALUES:

Excellence, Integrity, Commitment, Competence, Innovation, Transparency

GOALS:

1. To be a center of excellence providing best practices, training and educations in microbiology and immunology.

2. To serve as a distinguished regional diagnostic referral center for infectious diseases and immunological disorders.

3. To provide competency-based and high quality interdisciplinary scientific research in the field of infectious diseases and immunology.

4. To develop and implement effective postgraduate training programs.

5. To foster community partnerships.

Activities of the Department:

1. Teaching theoretical and practical classes in microbiology, parasitology and immunology to the students of the College of Medicine.

2. Conducting diagnostic, specialized and confirmatory laboratory tests including virological, bacteriological, fungal, parasitic and immunological tests for patients attending at Aseer Central Hospital (ACH), Abha Maternity and Child Hospital (AMCH), and other hospitals across the Southern Region of KSA.

3. Conducting scientific research with emphasis on clinical issues, community health problems and endemic diseases in Aseer province such as Malaria, Leishmania, brucellosis, Rift valley fever, dengue fever and other endemic parasitic, bacterial, fungal and viral infections.

4. Conducting scientific research with special emphasis on basic and clinical research in immunological disorders including allergic and autoimmune diseases.

5. Supervising the performance of the technicians and specialists at the Province's health affairs laboratories.

6. Continuously inspecting the Province's hospitals with the purpose to identify the microbial contamination sources and studying contagion media between patients and hospital staff.

7. Participating in the disease control, providing scientific and technical consultations, and setting plans to prevent hospital contagion in the Province.

8. Conducting scientific seminars, workshops in emerging infectious diseases (e.g. COVID-19 in different areas of the region during the pandemic.

9. The department faculty staff published a number of scientific articles about the epidemiology, diagnostics and clinical elements of COVID-19 in highly cited journals during and after the pandemic.

10. The department also offered a number of scientific presentations through its high caliber staff at both national and international levels.

11.Collaborations with national and reginal centers in research and diagnostic affairs.

Departmental Committees

Curriculum development committee
Examination, evaluation and continuous assessment committee
Lab Purchase and teaching requirements committee
Teaching and courses committee
Promotion and research committee – upon requirements
Participation in mentorship committee at college level
Participation in regional hospitals and university committee

Conferences & Seminars

The department participated in the conferences seminars through the following:

The department teaching staff regularly presented scientific papers in the Annual Research Day which organized by the Academic Deanship of the college.
The department teaching staff had regular participation in the in local, regional and international conferences.
The department organized lectures to the laboratory specialists and technicians on the microbiological tests of food poisoning at the regional province's health affairs department of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The department participated through a number of faculty members in the scientific workshop which was held by the province's Health Affairs Administration during 04/1431AH (03/2010A.D) on the infection and prevention of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The department organized lectures to the hospital staff and patients in the southern region on the microbes, and infections prevention and control.
The department is a regular participant in the joint forensic-medical committee at the Southern Region of Saudi Arabia.
The department had taken part in a number of seminars on the Prophetic Medicine, which were held in Abha in the last few years.

Academic Committees

The department, through its teaching staff members, participated in several committees within the College and the University as well as in the Public Health committees. The department also established several committees to discuss the various aspects and activities including:

1. The master program in Parasitology and Medical Entomology committee.

2. The college accreditation committee.

3. The enrollment of the college graduates as faculty members in the preclinical departments committee.

4. The department also established a number of committees on different occasions to oversee the distribution of the academic burden on teaching staff members.

5. The department is an active participant in the committees of the College’s Annual Research Day event.

6. The department participated in the student academic cases committees at the College.

7. The department participated in several committees at the province's hospitals such as the medical waste disposal committee.

Head of Department

Prof. Ahmed Mossa Al-Hakami

(MBBS, MSc, PhD)

Head of the Department of Microbiology and Clinical Parasitology

College of Medicine, King Khalid University

Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

P. O. Box 641, Abha

Telephone: 017 241 8209

Fax: 017 241 8660

E-mail: amalhakami@kku.edu.sa

Program, Courses

1-Teaching Medical Courses (for under- graduate students)

The department teaches six major courses to the students of the College of Medicine (MBBS program), College of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy and College of Nursing

A. Courses offered for College of Medicine

No.	Course Name	Course Code	Level	Credit Hours
1	Microbiology and Immunology-1	MIC 3337	L7	8 (6+2)
2	Microbiology and Immunology-2	MIC 3338	L9	8 (6+2)

B. Courses offered for College of Dentistry

No.	Course Name	Course Code	Level	Credit Hours
3	Basics of Microbiology	MIC 3334	L5	3 (2+1)
4	Clinical Microbiology	MIC 5351	L9	1 (1+0)

3. Courses offered for College of Pharmacy

No.	Course Name	Course Code	Level	Credit Hours
5	Microbiology and Immunology	PHT 223	L4	3 (2+1)

4. Courses offered for College of Nursing

No.	Course Name	Course Code	Level	Credit Hours
6	Microbiology and Immunology	MIC 212	L4	5 (3+2)

2-Teaching Medical Courses (post-graduate students)

Masters of Clinical Microbiology and Parasitology

It is a two-year postgraduate program recently established and offered by the Department of Microbiology and Clinical Parasitology, at the College of Medicine, King Khalid University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The training of this program is intended to comprise the vital sub-components of microbiology such as bacteriology, virology, parasitology and immunology in reference to human diseases. It is also designed to include an advanced theoretical as well as practical training aspects. Additionally, the program shall also include novel research components, in order to address a vital scientific biomedical query to be submitted as a documented thesis by the end of the program, interpreting and discussing the clinical observations. The candidate should be critically evaluated for all its components before the culmination of the training program.

Down here the program components and distribution of courses through the study period is presented:

Year No.	Level	Course Code	Course Name	Required or Elective	Pre- Requisite Courses	Credit Hours
1	Level 1	864-MIC (1)	Basic Microbiology and Parasitology 1	Required	The student must have a recognized university degree in medicine (MBBS) with a grade of good and above.	3(2+1)
		812-MBC	Molecular Biology	Required		3(2+1)
		881-MIC	Basic Microbiology Techniques and Instrumentations	Required		2(1+1)
	Level 2	864- MIC (2)	Basic Microbiology and Parasitology 2	Required		4(2+2)
		865-MIC (1)	Applied Microbiology and Parasitology 1	Required		4(2+2)
		882-MIC	Basics of Quality and Infection Control	Required		2(1+1)
	Level 3	813-MIC	Clinical Immunology	Required		5(3+2)
	Level 3	865-MIC (2)	Applied Microbiology and Parasitology 2	Required		4(2+2)
2	Level 4	812-MEDU	Basics of Medical Education	Required	Successful completion of 1^st year courses	2(1+1)
		882-MRS	Applied Biostatistics	Required		1(1+0)
		866-MIC	Clinical Microbiology and Parasitology	Required		6(3+3)
	Level 5	891-MIC (1)	Graduation Research Project 1	Required		2(1+1)
		883-MRS	Medical Research Methods	Required		1(1+0)
		814-MIC	Basic Immunology of Transplantation	Elective		2(1+1)
		815-MIC	Clinical Flowcytometry	Elective		2(1+1)
		867-MIC	Introduction to Tropical Diseases	Elective		2(1+1)
	Level 6	891-MIC (2)	Graduation Research Project 2	Required		6(0+6)

Staff and Faculty List

The department consists of 9 teaching staff, three of them with a professor rank, four associate professor, and two assistant professor. In addition to 3 lecturers and two teaching assistant.

Name	Academic Rank	Subspecialty	Email addreess
MALE SECTION
Ahmed Bin Moussa Al-Hakami	Professor (HOD)	MBBS, MSc, PhD, Immunology	amalhakami@kku.edu.sa
Abdelwahid Saeed Ali	Professor	PhD, Virology	abali@kku.edu.sa
Mohammad Elamin Hamid Ali	Professor	PhD Bacteriology	mehamid@kku.edu.sa
Ashish Kumar	Associate Professor	MBBS, MD, Medical Microbiology ()	akumar@kku.edu.sa
Mohammed Almaghrabi	Associate Professor	PhD, Bacteriology	malmaghrabi@kku.edu.sa
Harish Chinna Konda Chandramoorthy	Associate Professor	PhD, Molecular and Stem Cell Biology	hshkonda@kku.edu.sa
Abdullah Misfer Al-Qahtani	Associate Professor	PhD, Bacteriology	abdalqahtani@kku.edu.sa
Riyad Ahmed Ali Moussa	Lecturer	MSc, Microbiology	ramosa@kku.edu.sa
Ihab Mohamed Ziad Salem	Lecturer	MSc, Microbiology	imsalem@kku.edu.sa
Martin Raju P. J.	Lecturer	MSc, PhD, Microbiology	martin@kku.edu.sa
Yahiya Shaabi	Demonstrator	MBBS, FRCPath Medical Microbiology
Abdullah Jarbouh Al-Qahtani	Demonstrator	MBBS, Microbiology
FEMALE SECTION
Mona El Faki	Assistant Professor	MBBS, PhD Parasitology	melfaki@kku.edu.sa
Anandhalkakshmi kaliavani	Assistant Professor	MBBS, MD Medical Microbiology	Anandhalkakshmi @kku.edu.sa
Neaam Aburas	Lecturer	MSc, Microbiology	nalhasan@kku.edu.sa

Department of Microbiology and Parasitology