Portrait
details: Painted by Raymond Pitre`, 1994
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Ruzar Briffa
Dermatologist,
poet
Born: Valletta, 16/01/1906;
died: 22/02/1963.
Education: Lyceum;
University of Malta; awarded the Strachan Traveling Scholarship to
follow
postgraduate courses in dermatology and tropical disease at the
Institute of
Dermatology and St. Thomas Hospital in London and another scholarship
to visit
the Calcutta School of Tropical Disease and various leper stations in
India
[1938]. Qualifications: B.Sc. [Malta, 1928];
B.Pharm. [Malta, 1928]; M.D.
[Malta, 1931]. Career: Government Health
Service: 1932
houseman in skin diseases; 1936-37 assistant medical officer at the
Lazzaretto
Isolation Hospital; 1938 assistant medical officer in charge of the
Department
of Skin and sexually-transmitted disease and leprosy control officer;
1944
Visiting Physician to St. Bartholomew Leper Hospital; 1950 appointed
senior
consultant in skin disease at the Central Hospital, and Chambray
Hospital; also
nominated honorary skin disease specialist at the Malta War Memorial
Hospital
for Children. During World War II acted as Medical Superintendent of
the Blue Sisters Emergency Hospital. University
of Malta: lecturer on
dermatology and venerology at the university
[1950-63]. Achievements: His medical
contributions were in the field of
leprosy introducing several medical therapeutic options. His
contributions in
the literary field included a number of poems in Maltese; co-founded
the Ghaqda
tal-Malti in 1931 and served as its first president. Guze` Aquilina
calls Ruzar
Briffa as “the prince of Maltese lyrics”.
References:
P. Cassar:
A torch-bearer in the control of Leprosy in Malta. The
Sunday Times [of Malta], 26th February
1995, p.59; C. Briffa: Briffa, Ruzar. Maltese
Biographies of the twentieth century [eds. Schiavone M.J., Scerri
L.J.].
PIN, Malta, 1997,
p.93-94.
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