Dr Samiran Panda takes charge as NARI chief today, to focus on HIV prevention among IDUs, MSMs

Dr Samiran Panda. (File) 

Dr Samiran Panda, a tropical medicine specialist who has played a key role in supporting AIDS programmes, will take charge as director of the Pune-based National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) on Tuesday. In an interview with The Indian Express, Dr Panda said his immediate focus would be HIV prevention programmes among high-risk groups, such as injecting drug users (IDUs) and men having sex with men (MSM).

Panda, who was earlier the deputy director at the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (Kolkata), has been appointed full time director at NARI. He will take charge from Dr R R Gangakhedkar, who was the officiating director in-charge at NARI for the last three years.

As a scientist with the Indian Council of Medical Research during the early 1990s, Dr Panda was a key member of the team, documenting the HIV/AIDS epidemic among IDUs in northeastern states, with focus on Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram. His work had shown convincing evidence about the progression of HIV epidemic from IDUs to their wives, and the drug-sex interface operating in female drug users and IDUs in Manipur.

Panda has also been associated with projects pertaining to Hepatitis C infection. “I have been associated with projects related to Hepatitis C in Chennai … at NARI, we will encourage scientists to get engaged in similar efforts,” said Panda .

On the many challenges in the fight against HIV and AIDS, he said the stigma and discrimination associated with the disease were major causes of concern. “Today, approximately 1.14 lakh children in the country are living with HIV and a similar number of people have been affected by the disease… as they may have lost either one or both parents to this disease. The stigma does persist as it has its origin in blame and shame,” said Panda.

He added that while giving tablets to deal with HIV was essential, prevention, active care and support were also important. “We can then encourage highly active retroviral prevention, especially among discordant couples (where one spouse has HIV infection and other doesn’t), transgenders and men having sex with men,” said Panda.