HIV/AIDS in India is an epidemic. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimated that 3.14 million people lived with HIV/AIDS in India in 2023. Despite being home to the world's third-largest population of persons with HIV/AIDS, the AIDS prevalence rate in India is lower than that of many other countries. In 2016, India's AIDS prevalence rate stood at approximately 0.30%—the 80th highest in the world. Treatment of HIV/AIDS is via a combination of antiretroviral drugs and education programs to help people avoid infection.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, also known by its abbreviation MoHFW, is an Indian government ministry charged with health policy in India. It is also responsible for all government programs relating to family planning in India.
The National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) is an Indian public health, nutrition and translational research centre located in Hyderabad, India. The institute is one of the oldest research centres in India, and the largest centre, under the Indian Council of Medical Research, located in the vicinity of Osmania University. The institute has associated clinical and paediatric nutrition research wards at various hospitals such as the Niloufer Hospital for Women and Children, the Government Maternity Hospital, the Gandhi Medical College and the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad.
The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), established in 1992 is a division of India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that provides leadership to HIV/AIDS control programme in India through 35 HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Societies, and is "the nodal organisation for formulation of policy and implementation of programs for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS in India.".
Dr. Anice George, is an Indian nurse and an academician who was former Dean of Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, and currently adjunct professor of child health nursing. She is also the academic advisor of nursing education, at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, (MAHE) Manipal, India. She is a nurse educator, administrator, researcher and a registered nurse who values caring as a fundamental core of the nursing profession.
Dr.Balram Bhargava is an Indian physician scientist, cardiologist, medical educationist, and innovator. He is currently serving as the Chief of Cardiothoracic Centre, AIIMS. He is the former Director General at the Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi and secretary of the Department of Health Research; a division under Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
Suniti Solomon was an Indian physician and microbiologist who pioneered AIDS research and prevention in India after having diagnosed the first Indian AIDS cases among the Chennai sex workers in 1986 along with her student Sellappan Nirmala. She founded the Y R Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education in Chennai. The Indian government conferred the National Women Bio-scientist Award on her. On 25 January 2017, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri for medicine for her contributions towards diagnosis and treatment of HIV.
Soumya Swaminathan Yadav is an Indian paediatrician and clinical scientist known for her research on tuberculosis and HIV. From 2019 to 2022, she served as the chief scientist at the World Health Organization under the leadership of Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Previously, from October 2017 to March 2019, she was the Deputy Director General of Programmes (DDP) at the World Health Organization.
Joyanti Chutia is an Indian physicist who specializes in solid-state physics and plasma physics. She was among the first women who have headed scientific institutions in India when she became the Director of the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology in Guwahati, Assam, which is the first major research institution in North East India. She is a fellow of National Academy of Sciences. She is an Emeritus Scientist at the Department of Science & Technology in the Government of India.
Dr AJ Kanwar is an Indian Dermatologist. He has been Senior Professor and Head, Department of Dermatology, Venereology & Leprology, PGI Chandigarh and currently practices in his hometown, New Delhi, India. Dr AJ Kanwar is the son of Late Shri Inder Singh and Smt Shanti Devi and was born on 29 June 1948. He attended school in New Delhi and graduated from the prestigious AIIMS, New Delhi in MBBS in 1969. He continued in AIIMS, New Delhi to obtain his post graduate degree (M.D.) in Dermatology and Venereology in 1975. After his senior residency in AIIMS, Dr Kanwar went on a foreign assignment in Benghazi, Libya. He also served a year in St John's Institute of Dermatology, London during a Commonwealth Medical Fellowship. He received a special training in Pediatric Dermatology during this year. To his credit are also time in National Institute of Health, Washington USA in 2006 for a Fellowship in AIDS, and a month in Kurume, Japan in 2010 for special training in Pemphigus. Dr Kanwar's foreign assignment in Libya, ended in 1987 when he returned to join PGI Chandigarh.
Rakesh Aggarwal is an Indian gastroenterologist, who is currently the Director of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India. He was previously a Professor of Gastroenterology at the Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences. Known for his studies on Gastrointestinal diseases, Liver diseases, and Viral Hepatitis, Aggarwal is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies, namely National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy, and of the National Academy of Medical Sciences. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2002.
YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education is a non-profit organisation in India working in the domain of HIV/AIDS. The organisation was founded by Suniti Solomon in 1993. As reported in 2018, YRG Care had provided HIV prevention and treatment related services to about 21,000 people in India who were infected by HIV. After Suniti Solomon died, Sunil Solomon leads YRG Care.
Raman Gangakhedkar is an Indian public health expert and epidemiologist. He served as Head Scientist of Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases at the Indian Council of Medical Research before retiring on 30 June 2020. He is a recipient of the 2020 Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award in India.
Anita Bhardwaj is an Indian high-altitude rescue doctor. She is joint medical director of the Six Sigma High Altitude Medical Rescue Services and she has received the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti Puraskar.
Shanta Dutta is an Indian medical researcher on Gastrointestinal diseases and currently the director of ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (ICMR-NICED). She has over 30 years of research experience on infectious Diseases and topics of her research interest include prevention and control of acute and chronic diarrheal diseases, Antimicrobial resistance, Disease pathogenesis, Developing point of care diagnostics, enteric vaccines and alternative therapy. She has been elected as a Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology (FWAST) ; National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc), and Fellow of National Academy of Medical Science (FAMS)
National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases or NICED is an Indian medical institute that conducts research and develops prevention and treatment and control strategies related to enteric diseases and HIV/AIDS. The headquarter of NICED is located at Kolkata, West Bengal. NICED is affiliated to and financed by Indian Council of Medical Research.
P Kausalya, aka Periasamy Kousalya is an Indian HIV activist. She came to notice as the first woman to talk to the media about being one of India's HIV-positive people. She was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2015 by the Indian government. She was one of four people who started the Positive Women Network to champion the rights of women who were HIV+.
The Vaccine War is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language medical docudrama film directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Pallavi Joshi. It tells about the development of Covaxin during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, shedding light on the efforts of scientists involved in its creation. It is based on the book "Going Viral" by Prof Balram Bhargava of Indian Council of Medical Research.
Vasantha Muthuswamy was an Indian physician and bioethicist, head of the Indian Council of Medical Research's Division of Basic Medical Sciences, Traditional Medicine, and Bioethics, and the Division of Reproductive Health and Nutrition, from 1990 to 2008. She was a leader in establishing, revising, and promoting ethical guidelines for medical research in India. She participated in international organizations and projects focused on bioethics, and was a noted critic of ethics dumping.
