Today marks birthday of Zarifa Aliyeva

Today marks the 99th birthday of world-renowned Azerbaijani scientist-ophthalmologist, academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

Zarifa Aliyeva was born on April 28, 1923, in the Shakhtakhty village of the Sharur district of Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

In 1942, after graduating from high school, Zarifa Aliyeva entered the faculty of preventive medicine of the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute, from which she graduated in 1947. She has then completed a specialization course in ophthalmology at the Central Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education in Moscow.

In 1967, Zarifa Aliyeva was invited to work as an associate professor of the Department of Eye Diseases of the Azerbaijan State Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education of the Ministry of Health, which was named after her father, Professor Aziz Aliyev, who led this institution in the last years of his life.

In those years, the eye disease, known as trachoma, was widespread in Azerbaijan. Effective methods of treating this infection have not been developed and the fight against this disease was of great importance not only for ophthalmology, but also for the entire healthcare sector of the country.

Zarifa Aliyeva has been actively engaged in the development and implementation of therapeutic and preventive measures to combat trachoma. In addition to specific medical practice, she traveled to those regions of Azerbaijan where a higher rate of the disease was observed, lectured to ophthalmologists, and conducted numerous conversations with the population.

The theme of Zarifa Aliyeva's first scientific research was guided by the life itself. She devoted her research work to issues related to the treatment of trachoma, namely, to the study of the possibilities of effective use in its treatment of a new antibiotic at that time – synthomycin broad spectrum bacteriostatic antibiotic, which also contained anti-chlamydia antibodies.

In 1960-1967, Zarifa Aliyeva worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Ophthalmology. In 1963, the Higher Attestation Commission of the USSR awarded her the title of senior researcher in "Ophthalmology".

Since 1968, Zarifa Aliyeva has been purposefully dealing with issues of professional pathology of the eyesight organ. In 1977, she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences.

Later, in 1979, Zarifa Aliyeva initiated the launch of a laboratory of physiology and professional pathology dealing with the eyesight organ at the Institute of Physiology named after A.I. Karaev of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. The laboratory hosted multiple in-depth studies to learn physiological, clinical, functional, histological mechanisms of impact of industrial hazards of low intensity on the human’s visual organ. Based on the results of scientific research, she published a number of monographs, in particular "Professional pathology of the eyes in the tire industry", "Ophthalmology in chronic iodine intoxication" and "Prevention of professional eye diseases in the iodine industry", which have gained worldwide recognition.

A year after defending her doctoral dissertation, she was elected professor of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Azerbaijan State Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education named after her father Aziz Aliyev, and in 1983, she started leading the Department of Ophthalmology.

In 1981, a series of scientific researches conducted by Zarifa Aliyeva in the field of professional pathology of the eyesight organ, which made a great contribution to the development of ophthalmology, brought her the highest award in the field of ophthalmology - the M.I. Averbakh Prize of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. She became the first woman scientist to receive such a prestigious award.

The merits of Zarifa Aliyeva were awarded orders and medals, including the Honored Scientific Worker of Azerbaijan.

Zarifa Aliyeva was married to Heydar Aliyev, the great leader of Azerbaijan, the former president, and father of incumbent President Ilham Aliyev.

The great scientist passed away on April 15, 1985, in Moscow.