The Woman Who Discovere HIV in Ndia

The woman who discovered India's first HIV cases - BBC News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fmaga...
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The woman who discovered India's

first HIV cases
By Geeta Pandey
9-11 minutes
By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Tamil Nadu
Thirty years ago, India discovered the dreaded HIV virus had
reached its shores when blood samples from six sex workers
tested positive. It was largely due to the efforts of one young
scientist - but until now, her pioneering work has been all but
forgotten.
When it was first suggested she screen people for HIV/Aids,
1 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
Sellappan Nirmala balked.
It was at the end of 1985 and the 32-year-old microbiology student

at the medical college in Chennai (Madras), was looking for a topic
for her dissertation.
The idea came from her professor and mentor, Suniti Solomon.
Formal tracking of Aids cases had begun in the United States in
1982 and the medical authorities in India didn't want to be caught
napping if the disease reached India.
But at the time, the idea of that happening was widely considered
"unthinkable", Nirmala recalls.
The press at the time wrote that HIV was a disease of the
"debauched West" where "free sex and homosexuality" were
prevalent. Indians, on the other hand, were portrayed as
heterosexual, monogamous and God-fearing.
Sellappan Nirmala today
Some papers even remarked smugly that by the time the disease
2 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
reached India, the Americans would have found a cure for it.
Also, the city of Chennai and the surrounding Tamil Nadu region
were considered especially traditional societies. Hundreds of
samples, collected from the supposedly more promiscuous city of
Mumbai, had already been tested at the virology institute in the
western city of Pune and no positive results had turned up so far.
So, it was not surprising that Nirmala was reluctant. "I told Dr
Solomon I was pretty sure the result would be negative," she says.
Solomon, however, persuaded her student to give it a shot.
It was decided that Nirmala would collect 200 blood samples from
high-risk groups like sex workers, gay men and African students,
but this was not an easy job - Nirmala had previously worked on
leptospirosis, a bacterial disease transmitted from dogs and
rodents, and she knew nothing about HIV or Aids.
What's more, she had no idea where to find her subjects - unlike
the cities of Mumbai, Delhi and Calcutta which have well-known
red-light districts, Chennai had no fixed address for sex workers.
3 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
So she began frequenting the Madras General Hospital where

many women were treated for sexually transmitted diseases.
"There I befriended a couple of sex workers and they would point

out other sex workers to me. When I looked at their forms, I saw
that many had 'V home' written on them. When I asked around, I
was told that it stood for "vigilance home" where prostitutes and
destitute women were remanded by the authorities."
Soliciting was - and still is - illegal in India and these women would
be arrested and sent to the remand home because they were too
poor to pay the bail.
So every morning, before going to work, Nirmala began dropping

in at the remand home to visit the sex workers.
She had been raised in a traditional family in a small village, was

married, and had two small children: "I was the nervous type, I
spoke in Tamil, I wanted a peaceful quiet life."
But she was encouraged by her husband, Veerappan

Ramamoorthi, who supported her every step of the way. Often, he
drove her to the remand home on his scooter - the couple were
just starting out on their careers and didn't have any funds to spare
and that way, she could save the bus fare.
4 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
Nirmala and her husband Veerappan Ramamoorthi, who drove her

on his scooter to collect samples
Over three months, she gathered more than 80 samples. She had
no gloves, no safety equipment. And the sex workers had no idea
what they were being tested for.
"I didn't tell them that I was looking for Aids," she said. "They were
all illiterate and even if I had told them, they wouldn't have
understood what Aids was. They thought I was taking samples for
venereal diseases."
Solomon, who was married to a heart-and-lung surgeon, created a

small makeshift lab with equipment borrowed from her husband
and others in which she and Nirmala separated the serum from the
blood samples - a key part of the testing process. In the absence
of a better storage facility, Nirmala kept them in her home
refrigerator.
As there was no facility for Elisa testing in Chennai, Dr Solomon

arranged for the samples to be tested at the Christian Medical
College (CMC) in Vellore, 200km away from Chennai.
"One day in February 1986, my husband and I put the samples in

an ice-box and boarded an overnight train to Katpadi. From there,
we took an auto-rickshaw to reach CMC."
There, virology department director Jacob T John assigned two

junior colleagues - P George Babu and Eric Simoes - to help
Nirmala.
5 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
What is HIV/Aids
Getty Images
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the

immune system, and weakens ability to fight infections and
disease
Transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing infected needles,

and from HIV-positive mothers to children during pregnancy, birth
and breastfeeding
No cure, but treatments can enable most people with the virus to
live a long and healthy life
AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection, when the body can no
longer fight life-threatening infections
More information from NHS Choices, Terrence Higgins Trust and

UNAIDS
"We began testing at 8:30am. In the afternoon, there was a power

cut so we all took a tea break. When we returned, Dr George Babu
6 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
and I arrived at the lab first," recalls Nirmala.
"Dr George Babu opened the lid, and quickly shut it. 'Don't play,'
he warned. But I'd seen it, six of the samples had turned yellow. I
was stunned. I'd never expected anything like that."
A minute later Simoes walked in. He also checked the results.

"There are some positives," he said, and hurried out to call John,
who came running into the room.
There was no denying the positive result anymore - it was staring

them all in the face.
"Where did you collect these samples?" John asked Nirmala.
Before they returned to Chennai, Nirmala and her husband were

sworn to secrecy.
"We were told it was a very sensitive matter, so don't tell anyone,"
says Ramamoorthi.
After returning to Chennai, Nirmala went to Solomon's office and

broke the news to her.
7 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
Soon, she returned to the vigilance home - this time, with

Solomon, Babu and Simoes - and they collected samples from the
six women again.
Simoes flew with the samples to the US where a Western Blot test
confirmed that the deadly HIV virus had indeed arrived in India.
The grim news was conveyed to the Indian Council for Medical
Research, which informed the then-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi
and then-Tamil Nadu state health minister HV Hande.
When Hande announced the bad news in the state assembly in

May, Nirmala and Solomon were seated in the visitors' gallery.
The initial reaction of the people was disbelief. Some questioned

the tests, some said the doctors had made a mistake.
Solomon, who died last year, was particularly singled out by the
critics since she was an outsider from the western state of
Maharashtra.
"People were really angry, they said a north Indian woman is

telling us we are dirty. But everyone was in shock, including my
8 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
mother," says her son, Sunil Solomon.
The authorities began a mad scramble to come up with a

response.
"The director of ICMR told me 'this is just the tip of the iceberg. We
have to get down to work quickly'," says Nirmala.
Authorities launched massive screening and prevention

programmes. Over the years, HIV-Aids turned into an epidemic in
India, growing rapidly, pervading every corner of the country.
Indian authorities launched a massive HIV/Aids response

programme in the 1990s and 2000s
For years, it was believed that India had the highest number of
infected people in the world with 5.2 million infections - until new
estimates in 2006 nearly halved that number.
But even today, more than 2.1 million infected people live in India
and the deadly disease, which still has no cure, remains a killer.
For her part, Nirmala went back to her studies. She had to still
9 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08
collect more than 100 of the 200 samples she had agreed to
screen for her thesis.
Over the next few weeks, she continued to visit remand homes for
sex workers and prisons to meet gay men.
In March 1987, she submitted her dissertation - Surveillance for

Aids in Tamil Nadu - wrote her exams, passed, and joined the
vaccine production programme in the King Institute of Preventive
Medicine in Chennai, from which she retired in 2010.
Exactly 30 years after her groundbreaking work confirmed the

presence of HIV-Aids in India, Nirmala is all but forgotten. Except
for the few press reports at the time about her triumph, there's
been little recognition of her sterling work.
I ask her if she ever feels that she has not received the recognition
she deserves?
"I was brought up in a village. There no-one gets excited or

depressed about such things. I'm happy I got this opportunity and
I've done something for the society," she says.
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook
10 of 10 17-08-2022, 23:08

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The woman who discovered India's first HIV cases - BBC News about:reader?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fmaga...

The woman who discovered India's

When it was first suggested she screen people for HIV/Aids,

Sellappan Nirmala balked.

It was at the end of 1985 and the 32-year-old microbiology student

Sellappan Nirmala today

Solomon, however, persuaded her student to give it a shot.

So she began frequenting the Madras General Hospital where

"There I befriended a couple of sex workers and they would point

So every morning, before going to work, Nirmala began dropping

She had been raised in a traditional family in a small village, was

But she was encouraged by her husband, Veerappan

Nirmala and her husband Veerappan Ramamoorthi, who drove her

Solomon, who was married to a heart-and-lung surgeon, created a

As there was no facility for Elisa testing in Chennai, Dr Solomon

"One day in February 1986, my husband and I put the samples in

There, virology department director Jacob T John assigned two

HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks the

Transmitted through unprotected sex, sharing infected needles,

More information from NHS Choices, Terrence Higgins Trust and

"We began testing at 8:30am. In the afternoon, there was a power

and I arrived at the lab first," recalls Nirmala.

A minute later Simoes walked in. He also checked the results.

There was no denying the positive result anymore - it was staring

"Where did you collect these samples?" John asked Nirmala.

Before they returned to Chennai, Nirmala and her husband were

After returning to Chennai, Nirmala went to Solomon's office and

Soon, she returned to the vigilance home - this time, with

When Hande announced the bad news in the state assembly in

The initial reaction of the people was disbelief. Some questioned

"People were really angry, they said a north Indian woman is

mother," says her son, Sunil Solomon.

The authorities began a mad scramble to come up with a

Authorities launched massive screening and prevention

Indian authorities launched a massive HIV/Aids response

In March 1987, she submitted her dissertation - Surveillance for

Exactly 30 years after her groundbreaking work confirmed the

"I was brought up in a village. There no-one gets excited or

Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

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