The department is located on the ground floor of the A24 building at faculty premises.
The Department is responsible for teaching Medical Parasitology and Medical Entomology to the MBBS students during their 3rd and 4th years. The Department of Parasitology consists resources that create an environment conductive for the teaching and learning of Medical Parasitology. The teaching is mainly focused on the biological, immunological, epidemiological, and ecological aspects of protozoan and helminth diseases of humans, including the vectors that transmit parasitic infections. Since this Department was established, it has produced many Master and PhD holders through research both locally and internationally
In addition to the Parasitology course for undergraduate students on the MBBS course, the department conducts a short course for postgraduate students leading for the M.Sc. in Food and Nutrition, University of Kelaniya and also trains postgraduates for the MD (Medical Parasitalogy) conducted by the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, University of Colombo. The Department also undertakes daily routine investigation of stool samples for intestinal parasites, and blood for malarial and filarial parasites for the wards of the Colombo North Teaching Hospital Ragama and from various other sources. Identification of helminths, reptiles and arthropods of medical interest is also carried out on special request. The current research interests of the academic staff include all aspects of intestinal helminth infections, the entomological aspects of filariasis, dengue and leishmaniasis, and species complexes of malaria vectors.