Bachelor of Environmental Health Science (B. Env. H. Sc.)

The Bachelor of Environmental Health Science (B. Env. H. Sc.) Started in October 2000. As this field is an essential component of the Public health systems for health promotion and delivery in the community, its services are basic to the processes of diagnosis and surveillance of disease incidence in the community and to the procedures of disease prevention and control.

The major aim of the B. Env. H. Sc. is to prepare professionals in Environmental Health with the appropriate attitude, adequate skills and a scientific knowledge for handling and managing all duties and technical procedures in the broad areas of health promotion, disease prevention and control, management and administration of public health in community, research and training in the field of Environmental Health.

At the moment, there are very few environmental and industrial workers who have specialized in primary preventive measures like water safety, sanitation, food hygiene, good housing, pest control and waste management which are the key elements for the promotion of good health. The needs for environmental health services are complex because of the changes brought about by the socio-economic and technological advances. This implies that there is an increased demand for technological personnel in the field of environmental health. There is therefore, a great need at Makerere University and the Ministry of Health to train highly qualified Environmental Health professionals who can participate in environmental health management operational research and human resource development at Institutional, District and National levels.

The educational objectives of the programme are to produce graduates who should be able to:-
a) Develop an understanding of:

The chemical, biological, physical and social factors which affect the health of the community.
Relevant concepts from the appropriate social and behavioral sciences.
The management and administration of the environmental health delivery systems.

b) Become proficient with techniques of:

Identifying community environmental health needs.
Information collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and dissemination.
Environmental health monitoring, analysis and management.
Communicable and Non-communicable diseases prevention and control.
Supervision, monitoring and evaluation of environmental health services and activities.
Operation research and applied technology.

c) Acquire skills in the application of the above techniques and knowledge to the solution of community environmental health problems.

The B. Env. H. Sc. is a 3 year full time semester study programme, with each semester lasting 17 weeks and 2 weeks of each semester being for examination.

This course is intended to facilitate the acquisition of adequate knowledge and the development of skills and attitudes in the following areas of competencies: environmental health promotion, disease prevention and control, human resource development, management and administration of environmental health services and operational research.

Some photographs of 3RD year study trip