1.         Introduction

Physiology department provides teaching of Medical Physiology to MBBS 1 and 2, Pharmacy 1 and MLT 1.  In addition, the department coordinates teaching of Basic Pharmacology to MBBS year 2 students.

 2.         Staff Establishment

2.1       Academic Staff and Post

Prof L. Zerihun         -           Professor

Dr M. Mipando          -           Senior Lecturer

Dr M. Gondwe          -           Lecturer

Dr D. Kamadyaapa  -           Lecturer

Ms. N. Dzabala         -           Lecturer in Pharmacology

Mr F. Lampiao           -           Lecturer*

Dr S.S Du Plessis                Visiting Senior Lecturer (available only for a short period at a time)

* - indicates PhD aspirant on study leave

2.2       Academic staff that left in 2008 academic year

After serving the department as full professor for 2 years, Prof Legesse Zerihun returned home at the end of his contract.

2.3       Academic Staff that joined in 2008 academic year

Following their successful completion of their PhDs, the department welcomed back 2 members of staff; Dr Mavuto Gondwe and Dr Davie Kamadyaapa.

2.4       Clerical and Support staff           

            Mr W. Mponya                      Secretary

            Mr T. Chawinga                    laboratory technician

            Mr S. Kwitanda                     cleaner/messenger

Mr T Chawinga resigned from college in the middle of the year for greener pastures.  Thus, the department has been operating without a technician.

3.         External Examiner

Prof Willie Daniels  from University of KwaZulu-Natal served for the third and  last time as external examiner of the department.  He made useful suggestions for the improvement of the departmental output.

4.         Undergraduate Developments

All the academic members of the department actively participated in the curriculum review process for MBBS year 1 and 2.  They also participated in the on going mini-review process of the Premed course.

The department taught and assessed the following courses:

·         Physiology to MBBS 1 and 2

·         Physiology to MLT 1

·         Physiology to Pharmacy 1

·         Pharmacology to MBBS 2

·         Human Biology to Premedical science course

5.         Postgraduate Developments

Drs Gondwe, Kamadyaapa and Mipando were involved in the teaching and assessing of Pathophysiology to students doing MSc in Midwifery at Kamuzu College of Nursing.

 Mr Lampiao completed his PhD research work and submitted his thesis at the University of Stellenbosch.

6.         Infrastructure Development

The long awaited physiology building and BMS teaching laboratories were finally occupied during the first half of the year.  This has eased the problems of space that the department was facing.

7.         Research

M. Mipando

·         MM is the lead person at COM in an ongoing project, Research And Development Of Traditional Medicines Of Malawi, Particularly Those Used In HIV/Aids Management, in collaboration with colleagues from the following institutions; NRCM, CHANCO, Bunda, FRIM, MTHUO and NHBGM.  The project is funded by NAC

·         MM was also involved in a project that finished during the year under review.  The project title was Var Expression in Relation to Parasite Clumping.  MM was working in collaboration with Dr Wassmer and Dr Montgomery of MLW laboratory.

N. Dzabala

·         Health Action International (Africa Region) funded a survey, which looked at the price, availability and affordability of 71 Essential Medicines in Malawi across seven sectors of medicine providers.

·         Medicines For Malaria Venture In Conjunction With Ministry Of Health And College Of Medicine conducted a survey of the availability, price and affordability of anti malaria medicines during the malaria season in six districts of Malawi across all formal and informal medicine providers.