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.

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 Suniti Solomon (1938 or 1939 – 28 July 2015) was an Indian physician and microbiologist who pioneered HIV/AIDS, AIDS research and prevention in India after having diagnosed the first Indian AIDS cases among the Chennai sex workers in 1986 a ...

, in response to formal tracking of HIV in the US, which began in 1982. At the time, HIV was still a taboo subject in the country. 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, away. The samples confirmed that HIV was active in India. The information was transferred to the Indian Council of Medical Research, which told the prime minister

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

and Tamil Nadu health minister

H. V. Hande H. V. Hande (born 28 November 1927) is an Indian medical practitioner and a politician. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly from Park Town constituency as a Swatantra Party candidate in the 1967 and 1971 elections. He is known ...

. HIV subsequently became an epidemic in the country. Nirmala submitted her dissertation, ''Surveillance for Aids in Tamil Nadu'', in March 1987 and later joined the

King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research is a medicine research institute located in Guindy, Chennai, India. It was established on 7 November 1899 with the aim of protecting against scourging infections and was named after Lt. Col. W. ...

in Chennai. She retired in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nirmala, Sellappan Indian medical writers Living people 1950s births Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Indian medical doctors Indian medical researchers Medical doctors from Chennai Women scientists from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian women scientists Indian women medical doctors 20th-century women physicians