Tamil Nadu Timeline

HealthMGR era

First HIV cases in India detected in Madras

· Chennai

India's first documented HIV infections were found among sex workers in Madras by microbiologist Suniti Solomon and her student Sellappan Nirmala.

Working at Madras Medical College in 1986, microbiologist Suniti Solomon and her student Sellappan Nirmala tested blood drawn from 100 female sex workers in Madras. Six tested positive for HIV, a finding later confirmed by a second test at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. It was the first time HIV had been documented in India. Solomon later established, in Chennai, the YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education, and became one of India's foremost voices in HIV research and awareness.

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