DUSHANBE, November 20, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- Celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of Tajik Medical State University (TMSU) are being held at the TSMU head building in Dushanbe today, according to presidential press service.

President Emomali Rahmon and some 200 guests from other countries are participating in these celebrations.  President Emomali Rahmon will also hold a meeting with TMSU students today.

Ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 70th anniversary of TMSU will be held at the Kokhi Vahdt State Complex in Dushanbe today.  An exhibition of achievements of Tajikistan’s health sector will be organized on sidelines of the meeting.

Tajik State Medical Institute was established in 1939 and 2nd Moscow Medical Institute played a key role in foundation of it.   The first chancellor was Dr. Kraus; in the postwar years, he became Minister of Health of the Latvian SSR.

Many known Russian physicians began working in Tajikistan in the prewar years.  At the beginning of the war, thousands of people, among whom were professors, associate professors and professors at medical institutes from Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa, were evacuated to Stalinababad.  Students that graduated from Tajik Medical Institute in the war years and early postwar years became the backbone of teaching staff.   

During and after the civil war in the 1990s, TSMU seriously suffered from insufficiency of medical equipments; this problem was partially in the 2000s.

TSMU now consists of four faculties and 63 departments.  5,886 students, including more than 500 students from 16 foreign countries, are currently studying at TSMU.  81 doctors of sciences and 201 candidates of sciences now work with Tajik Medical State University.  Over the past seventy years, the University has trained more than 30,000 specialists and many of them now work not only in Tajikistan but also in 32 countries across the world.

In December of 2007, the head building of TSMU was totally destroyed by fire.  The building was reopened in November 2008.