Theodor Bilharz Research Institute

The Theodor Bilharz Research Institute is located in Giza, Egypt.

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Theodor Bilharz is a German scientist who discovered, in autopsy material at Kasr El Aini hospital, the causative agent of haematuria : Schistosoma worm, during his work in Egypt in 1851.

The idea of initiating the institute was elaborated in 1960 via high council of science, owing to the magnitude of schistosomiasis problem in Egypt specially in the rural population and its impact on the socioeconomic life. The objective of the institute was to tackle this diseases from all its aspects : control, diagnosis and management.

In 1960, Prof Dr. Ahmed Hafez Mousa ,the real originator of the institute and one of the world's pioneers in the field of Tropical Medicine was charged to fulfill this idea. He appointed the Tropical Medicine Department at Kasr El Aini, Faculty of Medicine a preliminary location for a small nuclear start of this project. This was followed by the establishment of a "Laboratory for Schisosomiasis Research in the Chemistry building of the National Research Center.

In April 1962, the foundation stone of the institute was implemented at Warak El Hader's village in Giza governorate. Meanwhile the building of the institute was constructed by Egyptian Government, the laboratories and hospital were equipped through an agreement between the governments of Federal Republic of Germany and Egypt in 1964.

In the same year, the institute was officially affiliated to the Ministry of Scientific Research By June 1978 the TBRI's laboratories and out-patients clinic were inaugurated. The attached hospital was completed in December 1981, and the official opening was in 1983 according the Presidential Decree No. 58.

Mission and Research Strategy:

The mission of TBRI is targeted towards the control, the diagnosis and management of endemic diseases specially urinary and hepatic schistosomiasis and their complications. The Institute adopts an integrated strategy based on four research programs that can cope with and fulfill this objective:

• Control of endemic diseases: This program aims at modifying the existing means of control measures and introducing more recent methods to achieve a more effective yet less expensive control scheme without any harmful environmental impact, through the employment of molecular biology in vaccine production and biological control of the parasites and their intermediate hosts. Moreover, studying the role of the community and intensifying its active participation are prerequisites.

• Diagnosis of endemic diseases: This program is directed to the study, assessment and modification of all diagnostic measures utilizing the most advanced technologies. The diagnosis varies from clinical and laboratory techniques to field studies (prevalence, ecological and socioeconomic implications).

• Morbidity changes of endemic diseases: This program aims at studying the pathogenesis and the pathological changes caused by endemic diseases on different body systems.

• Management of endemic diseases: This program evaluates both the current and advanced therapeutic measures and assess their efficacy and side effects. It includes the different medical and surgical management procedures of diseases and their complications. Studies on partial hepatectomy, liver regeneration and transplantation are items of this program.

Hospital Facilities:

· Three surgical theatres.

· Endoscopic facilities (gastroduodenoscopy, colonoscopy and ERCP) with ultrasonography and Doppler-electrocardiography.

· Laparoscopic facilities for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

· Minimal invasive urosurgery utilizing ureterorenoscopy; nephroscope and cystoscope, under fluoroscopic and endo-camera guidance.

· Blood gas monitoring with estimation of serum electrolytes.

· Fluoroscopy guided angio-table.

· Twenty machines for haemodialysis.

Nursing School

Affilited to the hospital a nursing school which graduated 295 students since 1998 up to 2001 with an average of 26 students per year to fulfill the needs of the Institute, the Ministry of health and other health organizations.