In lead up to world's largest HIV science conference (13th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2025)), let us remember when first few people with HIV were diagnosed in Mumbai, India, and Thailand. CNS (Citizen News Service) spoke with Dr Ishwar Gilada from India (who is credited to establish India's first AIDS clinic in 1986) and Dr Praphan Phanuphak from Thailand, both of whom are widely known to help diagnose first people with HIV.
40 years back, Dr Ishwar Gilada, India's longest-serving HIV medical expert, was working as a senior consultant at government-run JJ Hospital in Mumbai, India. News reports of 1980s show that he was actively campaigning amongst sex workers to encourage them on protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Noted filmstar Sunit Dutt and several other known personalities had also joined his crusade. Noted journalists Jayashree Shetty and Gopal Shetty have co-authored a 2023 book: "The Blunting Of An Epidemic: A Courageous War On AIDS" chronicling Dr Gilada's tireless and courageous crusade against AIDS for over four decades.
First three HIV infections were in sex workers from Mumbai's Kamathipura in 1985
Dr Gilada said: "We were doing active disease surveillance in Mumbai's sex work area, Kamathipura. In December 1985, three of the blood samples drawn from sex workers tested positive for HIV. One of them was a transgender person. I tested them at the Skin and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Department, JJ Hospital on kits donated by Abbott Laboratories in December 1985. The first HIV clinic in India was established in JJ Hospital by me on 5th March 1986.
"But confirmation of our HIV tests had to be done at government's National Institute of Virology in Pune in January 1986. However, Dr Khorshed M Pavri, then Director of National Institute of Virology, chose to withhold results. Dr Pavri came personally to collect fresh blood samples of people presumptive for HIV. I had to get all 6 sex workers to come to JJ Hospital once again to give their blood samples to Dr Pavri. She then sent samples to CDC Atlanta, USA, which caused inordinate delays in providing confirmation. Dr Pavri then published her scientific article, 'First HIV culture in Indian patients' where I am listed as a co-author along with Dr Jeanette J Rodrigues," shared Dr Gilada. Dr Pavri was India's first virologist, as well as first woman Director of National Institute of Virology.
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