Department of Microbiology and Virology

Head of Department

Tel: 064 884 227

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The Department of Microbiology, Virology and Medical Genetics is divided into two Sections: Microbiology and Virology Section and Medical Genetics Section. It was founded in 1999 and is headed by Prof. Mariya Petrova Sredkova, M.D, Ph.D.

The academic staff of the section consists of one Professor, one Assoc. Proffesor and five Chief Assistant Professors. All the lecturers have specialized in Medical Microbiology, one of them has a second specialty Virology, and one has a second specialty Epidemiology.

Academic staff:
Prof. Mariya Petrova Sredkova, M.D., Ph.D.
Assoc. Prof. Hristina Hitkova, M.D.
Chief Assistant Proffesor Valentina Edreva, M.D.
Chief Assistant Proffesor Valentina Popova, M.D.
Chief Assistant Proffesor Svetlana Pachkova, M.D.
Chief Assistant Proffesor Krasimir Dragoev, M.D.
Chief Assistant Proffesor Sashka Mihaylova, M.D., Ph.D.

The Microbiology and Virology Section divides its efforts between the teaching of students and scientific research. Teaching of M.D. students takes place during their second year and is carried out in both Bulgarian and English. Problem–Based Learning is also available. The teaching process includes a lecture course and training practice within two semesters. The teaching program includes basic subjects of the General Microbiology, Antibacterial Chemotherapy, Immunology, Special Microbiology, Special Virology and Clinical Microbiology. The objective of teaching and learning Microbiology is to obtain optimum knowledge in the field of Infectology and antibacterial therapy, which will be used in the routine practice of the future doctors. The discussion of clinical cases is vastly applied. Individual work spaces and mircoscopes are provided for each student. Audio-visual equipment and the respective materials are used in the practical training.
Teaching activities also include courses for Nursing and Midwifery BA students in the Health Care Faculty, as well as Medical Laboratory Assistant students at the Medical College at Medical University - Pleven.
The Section of Microbiology and Virology is also a training base for postgraduate specialization in Medical Microbiology.

The main topics and themes of the scientific research are:
• antimicrobial resistance of clinically relevant pathogens
• catheter–associated bacteriaemia
• nosocomial pathogens
• unusual nonfermentative Gram-negative bacteria