UF College of Medicine mourns loss of pediatrician Elia Ayoub
Pediatric infectious disease specialist Elia Moussa Ayoub, M.D., a University of Florida College of Medicine faculty member for 36 years, died April 4 at his home in Gainesville. He was 75.
Memorial services were held at Gainesville’s Trinity United Methodist Church April 7. Dr. Ayoub was a member of St. Elizabeth Greek Orthodox Church.
“A great mentor is someone who seems to have an easy and complete mastery over that which we strive to understand, and he or she just can’t wait to let us in on the secret,” said Douglas Barrett, UF Vice President for Health Affairs and fellow pediatrician. “Elia is that kind of mentor.”
Dr. Ayoub was a distinguished professor emeritus in the department of pediatrics’ division of immunology, infectious diseases and allergy.
A prolific researcher and author, Dr. Ayoub was perhaps best known for his investigations of rheumatic heart disease and its association with Streptococcal infections. Other topics he studied included rheumatoid arthritis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, sickle cell disease, Reye’s syndrome and tobacco use by children. He published more than 160 articles and 47 books or book chapters during his career.
He directed a statewide referral center at UF for children with rheumatoid arthritis and documented the positive effects of a vaccine to fight infections by the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae type b, which can cause meningitis and pneumonia.
Dr. Ayoub also was a gifted teacher, and in 1984 UF fourth-year medical students selected him to receive the Hippocratic Award for teaching excellence. He was inducted into the national medical honor society Alpha Omega Alpha in 1976.
He held numerous high-level appointments with organizations such as the Council of the American Pediatric Society, the American Heart Association’s Florida affiliate, the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Bacteriology and Mycology Study Section of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Ayoub earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in Lebanon in 1953. He completed further training at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, and in 1959 joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota College of Medicine’s department of pediatrics, where he remained for a decade. Joining the UF College of Medicine faculty in 1969 as a professor of pediatrics, Dr. Ayoub went on to serve as vice chairman for academic affairs with the department of pediatrics and held other leadership positions in the college. In 1994 he earned the rank of distinguished service professor, one of UF’s highest and most competitive faculty honors. After retiring in 2000, Dr. Ayoub remained an emeritus member of the department of pediatrics faculty.
He is survived by his wife, Louba Ayoub of Gainesville; a daughter, Hala Sandridge of Tampa; sons Steven Ayoub, Greg Ayoub, Jeff Ayoub and Paul Ayoub, all of Gainesville; and three grandchildren.