First Case of Aids: Know when and who discovered the first case of deadly disease of AIDS in India
According to NCBI, AIDS was first recognized as a new disease in 1981. But, do you know when and who found the first case of AIDS in India? In this article, today we will give you complete information...
Who discovered the first case of HIV in India: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the last year i.e. 2021, 650,000 people died due to WHO reasons and 1.5 million people were infected with this deadly virus. At the same time, the estimated 38.4 million (data taken by the end of 2021) people are living with HIV.
According to NCBI, the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was first recognized as a new disease in 1981. But, do you know when and who found the first case of AIDS in India? For complete information, read this article till the end.
Also Read - Rajinikanth: These 10 unique style make Thalaiva different
First case discovery
'Ayyash' disease of Western countries
Who searched the first case of HIV in India, started investigating these cases of AIDS in America from 1982, but during this time the doctors in India did not want to implicate themselves in the investigation of the disease. At the same time, in the 1980s, the disease was called 'Ayyash' in Western countries. During that time, many newspapers used to write that by the time the disease comes to India, America would have made its medicine.
32 -year -old student started AIDS investigation
This is from 1985 when a 32 -year -old Microbiology student from Chennai was looking for the subject of her article. The name of that student was Nirmala Selappan. Meanwhile, his teacher Suniti Solomon asked him to test people for HIV AIDS.
According to the BBC article, people living in and around Chennai are considered to be of orthodox thinking, while in Mumbai there are open -minded people. So several samples were taken from Mumbai to investigate AIDS, but their report came negative.
So Nirmala also felt that her hard work could go in vain, but Solomon persuaded her to investigate.
Also Read - Delhi's top 10 woolen market, from where you can do cheap and latest shopping
200 people for blood samples
For this investigation, Cellappan Nirmala decided that she would collect a sample of 200 people who have a high risk of getting infected with HIV, such as sex workers, African students and gays.
But, this work was not so easy, because Nirmala was absolutely unaware of this deadly infection. At the same time, the problem was that there were big red light areas in big cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, but there was no fixed space in Chennai. So Nirmala had to continuously go to Madras General Hospital. In this hospital, women suffering from sexually transmitted diseases were treated.
To get a sample, Nirmala befriended some sex workers found there, who told about other sex workers.
Husband supported
Nirmala belongs to a small village, where the society was of conservative thinking. So she felt a little uncomfortable while doing this work, but her husband supported her. Both of them started a new career, so to save money, he used to leave Nirmala to the remand home on her scooter. She got her husband's support at every step.
Also Read - Who is Shyamoli Verma, how did she become India's first 'Supermodel' and 'Lakme Girl'
80 samples taken
After working continuously for three months, 80 samples were found. At the same time, Nirmala did not tell those sex workers what she was investigating, because she was all illiterate and could not understand medical matters. He only thought that Nirmala was doing any study related to sexual diseases.
Nirmala with the help of her husband built a small lab in the house, where Nirmala and Solomon worked. At the same time, there was no safe place to keep the sample, so Nirmala put them in the fridge of her house.
Sample check
Due to lack of proper arrangements for samples in Chennai, Solomon arranged it at Christian Medical College, Vellore, 200 km away. One day in February 1986, Nirmala kept the samples in an ice box and reached Vellore by train with her husband.
Two people were deputed there to help Nirmala in the medical college, one P. George Babu and Eric Simos.
Samples turned yellow
In the BBC article, Nirmala says that P George Babu opened the lid and immediately closed it, but I saw that 6 of them had become yellow. I have not seen it before.
After this, Dr. Simos also came into the room and he also saw the results. Simos said that some of these results are positive. Hearing this, Nirmala ran out of the room to call Dr. George and Dr. George was running from the front. After this, George asked where did you take this sample? However, while coming here, Nirmala vowed that she would not tell this to anyone.
Told Solomon about the result
On reaching Chennai, Nirmala told the whole thing to Solomon. Both doctors and Nirmala of Solomon Medical College (Solomon Medical College) went to those sex workers and sampled again.
HIV has been confirmed in India
Taking the sample, Dr. George and Dr. Simos immediately left for the US and in the Western spot test, it proved that the HIV virus had arrived in India. This news was given to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), who gave this information to the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Health Minister.
Also Read - Upcoming South Movies: To make 2023 fun, South is bringing its 8 best movies
Initially people did not believe it and many people questioned its investigation. Along with this, widespread investigation and prevention programs were conducted. However, after a few years, this epidemic spread in India as well.
