Sellappan Nirmala

Sellappan Nirmala (born 1952 or 1953) is an Indian doctor who discovered the first case of HIV in India in 1986. In 1985, aged 32, she was working as a microbiology student in Chennai (Madras) and for her dissertation, began collecting blood samples and having them tested for HIV; among them were the first samples collected in India to test positive.

In this Indian name, the name Sellappan is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Nirmala.

Career

Nirmala was raised in a traditional Indian family and encouraged to go into medical research by her husband. She had the idea of researching the virus from her mentor, Professor Suniti Solomon, in response to formal tracking of HIV in the US, which began in 1982.[1] At the time, HIV was still a taboo subject in the country.[2] Blood samples had been collected from Mumbai and Pune without positive results.

The research plan involved taking around 200 samples of blood from groups suspected to be at high risk, including 80 gathered by Nirmala. Because of a lack of testing facilities in Chennai, Solomon arranged for them to be investigated at the Christian Medical College & Hospital in Vellore, 200 kilometres (120 mi) away.[3] The samples confirmed that HIV was active in India.[1] The information was transferred to the Indian Council of Medical Research, which told the prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Tamil Nadu health minister H. V. Hande.[4] HIV subsequently became an epidemic in the country.[2]

Nirmala submitted her dissertation, Surveillance for Aids in Tamil Nadu, in March 1987 and later joined the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research in Chennai. She retired in 2010.[4][3]

References
  1. Pandey, Geeta (30 August 2016). "The woman who discovered India's first HIV cases". BBC News. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  2. "The story of how one woman first detected HIV in India". Women in the World. The New York Times. 5 September 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  3. "భార‌త్‌లో మొట్ట‌మొద‌ట హెచ్ఐవి వైర‌స్‌ని గుర్తించిన మ‌హిళ ఈమే…సెల్ల‌ప్ప‌న్ నిర్మ‌ల‌!" [Sellappan Nirmala discovered India's first HIV cases]. Telugu Global (in Telugu). 28 September 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  4. "30 Years Ago, A Young Woman Scientist Discovered The First HIV/AIDS Case In India". The Logical Indian. 1 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
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