The Department of Infectious Diseases was founded in June 1962 with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vasil A. Zosikov as its head.
Prof. Zosikov graduated from medical University- Sofia in 1946. In 1962, he received the scientific title of Associate Professor, and in 1974, he became a Professor at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, Medical University - Varna. Prof. Zosikov specialized in Würzburg, Germany on the topics of Poliomyelitis. His scientific interests include acute viral hepatitis, treatment of bacterial intestinal infections, and others. The first assistants in infectious diseases were Dr R. Chochev and Dr M. Radkov.
In 1973, the united Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology was formed with Prof. Dr. V. Zosikov as its head until 1983.
From 1983 to 1991, the leadership of the unit was assigned to Prof. Dr. Milen Radkov. He defended his dissertation in 1976, and became Doctor of Medical Science in 1983, and was subsequently habilitated as an Associate Professor and Professor. His scientific interests are mainly in the field of immunology of acute viral hepatitis, reflected in over 100 publications.
From 1992 to 1999, the head of the department was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marina Nenova. She graduated from Medical University - Varna in 1972. She started working as a resident assistant in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology and was elected as an assistant in 1975. From 1990, she was a candidate of medical sciences, and from 1992, she was an associate professor. Her scientific interests are in the field of acute viral hepatitis, neuroinfections, intestinal bacterial infections, and others. At the end of 1999, she became the Deputy Rector for Academic Affairs at Medical University - Varna.
From 2000, the head of the department was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petar Manolov. He graduated from Medical University - Varna in 1967 and acquired his medical speciality in infectious diseases since in 1973. He has defended his dissertation in 1979. Since 1996, he has been an associate professor at the department. He was the head of the Acute Viral Hepatitis Clinic. He was the author and co-author of over 80 scientific papers and textbooks.
Since 2000, the educational sector (ES) for Dermatology and Venereology joined the department, and it existed as a joined Department of Infectious Diseases, Dermatology and Venereology, Tropical Diseases, and Epidemiology. After 2006, the ES for Dermatology and Venereology was separated as an independent department. From that point, as the Department of Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology, and Tropical Medicine unit existed until 2015 as part of the Faculty of Public Health, with two academic sectors on infectious diseases and tropical medicine and the ES for Epidemiology. From 2004 to 2012, the department was headed again by Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Nenova.
In 2015, after structural changes, the ES for Infectious Diseases and Parasitology was relocated as a structure in the Faculty of Medicine and merged with the ES for Dermatology and Venereology. From that point till today the Department of Infectious Diseases, Parasitology, and Dermatovenereology is comprised with two sectors - ES of Infectious Diseases and Parasitology and ES of Dermatovenereology.
From 2012 to the end of 2020, the head of the department was Prof. Dr. Margarita Gospodinova. Prof. Gospodinova graduated from Medical University - Varna in 1986 and acquired a specialty in infectious diseases in 1994. She qualified subsequently through the academic positions of senior and chief assistant and associate professor, and in 2018 acquired the academic degree professor. Her scientific interests are in the field of infectious diseases in adults, immunology of infectious diseases, transmissive infections, emergent infections, mixed forms of infectious diseases, and others.
Since January 2021, the head of the department is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kalina Stoyanova. Assoc. Prof. Stoyanova graduated with honours from MU-Varna in 2001 and acquired a specialty in medical parasitology in 2006. In 2017, she defended her doctoral thesis, and in 2020, acquired the academic degree of associate professor. Assoc. Prof. Stoyanova is a prominent specialist in the diagnostic practice and researcher with scientific interests in the fields of clinical diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology of intestinal, zoonotic, opportunistic, and tropical parasitic diseases as well as the epidemiology of infectious diseases in general.
