Department of Community Medicine

The Department of Community Medicine was established in 2016 as part of the foundation departments in the College of Medicine of Federal University Lafia. The mandate of the department revolves around broad and interrelated areas: human Resource Development/Training, service Delivery and research. The Community Medicine training is aimed at ensuring that all students develop a Public Health world-view competency in critical thinking, problem-solving, and excellence in education, research and community engagement. The department serves mainly the MBBS programme but also services other programmes in the college.
For the MBBS programme, Community Medicine is ran from 200 level to 600 level. It integrates rigorous classroom, clinical and laboratory learning with field/community-based and Primary Health Care experiences. Community-orientated learning starts from 200 level when the students start to become acquainted with cultural sensitivity, community entry and diagnosis procedures. A more intense exposure to clinical medicine commences at 400 level at the outpatient clinics in the Teaching Hospital, rural and urban sites, wards as well as exposure to epidemiological studies and identification of prevalent health problems in communities.
The Department and the counterpart department at the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia (DASH) are now being jointly managed. The residents are now involved in training of medical students while relevant lecturers in the University are also trainers of the residents in Community Medicine at the Hospital. The department in partnership with DASH provide services including the under-five clinic, TB/DOTS clinic, adolescent health centre and Sexually Transmitted Disease clinic. The urban and rural practice sites of the department are PHC Centre Agwatashi and CHC Kwandare (in collaboration with the Nasarawa State PHC Agency). The department has a public health laboratory with equipment for basic public health investigations and Public health museum with different samples/specimens and photo gallery covering all aspects of Public health.

The Head of the department of Epidemiology and Community medicine is Professor Ishaku Bako, a Public Health Physician and Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health. He has over twenty years’ experience in Public Health, development activities, teaching, training, research and community service. He had the basic medical degree (MBBS) from University of Jos in 1997, MSc Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) of the University of London and MSc Biostatistics from Benue State University, Makurdi and Fellowship of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria in Public Health. He attended several short courses within and outside Nigeria and held a number of academic and administrative appointments including serving as Executive Director of the Nasarawa State AIDS Control Agency between 2007 and 2011, head of Epidemiology and Community Health. His research interests include epidemiology and Control of Infectious diseases and health services management.