Health care in old Yerevan

During the years of Persian domination there were not any health care establishments in Yerevan: no hospitals, even no pharmacies, though the Armenian      medicine of the 18th century was rather developed due to European influence and on base of traditions. Some of numerous Armenian doctors of the 18th century were rather well-known. The activity of two of them was connected with Yerevan: one of them was named in the literature as Harutyun, the other as Tatul. But they didn't have corresponding medical establishments and therefore they weren't able to arrange even minimal medical servicing of the population.
After Eastern Armenia's joining to Russia, especially in 1829-30, during epidemical deceases the General Command of the Caucasus Armed Forces was informed that the military units located in Armenian district and the administrative workers can't stand without pharmacy. Paskevich with a written note convinced the Minister of Internal Affairs to open military pharmacies in some towns of Transcaucasia. One of these pharmacies was opened in Yerevan, in the end of 1839 and served the residents as well.
The first hospital in Yerevan was a military hospital which was created after joining Yerevan to Russia. It was situated in the fortress and occupied the building of the former harem of khan Hussein. Every year it served more than 1,5 thousand military-men and worked till the 1860s. After eliminating the fortress the hospital in Yerevan wasn’t mentioned.
In the course of time health care establishments were opened but they were so few and poor that were not able to satisfy the population’s demands. In 1880 the city doctor Levon Tigranyan developed his large-scale activities. In accordance with his proposal a permanent medical commission was founded which was assigned to improve health care conditions. By the initiative of L. Tigranyan “Health care newspaper” monthly was started. The sanitary conditions of the city began being improved since the late 189-s. In the beginning of the 20th century Yerevan already had a number of medical establishments: the city hospital, the eye hospital, mental asylum and the prison hospital. The largest, permanent and outstanding was the city hospital. To be treated a patient used to pay 15 roubles a month. There were 12 beds in the hospital, 7 of which were in men's department, 5 ones in women's department. In this period 2 private hospitals were mentioned as well one belonged to surgeon Hovhannisyan, the other – to doctor Melikyan. Medicine in Yerevan became more developed in the Soviet period.