She holds the honour of documenting the first evidence of HIV infection in the country in 1986, and she was the instrumental in establishing the city’s first voluntary HIV testing and counselling centre and was a recipient of several awards for her meritorious service in the field of HIV AIDS.
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Dr. Solomon was diagnosed with cancer three months ago, according to the report.
Dr Solomon, professor of microbiology at Madras Medical College, was the first to identify HIV among Indians in 1986 while many were still denying its reality, Cipla said in a statement.
She was 75 and is survived by her only son Dr Sunil S. Solomon who teaches at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr Suniti’s team documented this and pressed the alarm bells for launching awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS.
“Her death was sudden, she passed away this morning”.
The samples were first sent to Christian Medical College in Vellore and later to a facility in the USA, where they tested HIV positive.
It quickly led to a series of research and training for medical and paramedical professionals on HIV infection, besides gradually putting in place a treatment regimen for those affected. She was a part of the US National Institute of Mental Health’s multi-country HIV/STD prevention trial, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ HIV Prevention Trial Networks, NIH award that will measure stigma in health care settings in Southern India, and a Phase III study of 6% CS GEL, a candidate microbicide of CONRAD.
Trained in pathology in the UK and USA, her experience covers a wide range of aspects linked to HIV infection, biomedical parameters to socio-economics.
She had also published papers extensively on HIV epidemiology, prevention, care, support and related gender issues.
In 1993, Dr Solomon had created YR Gaitonde (YRG) to support AIDS Research and Education and welcomed patients. She then set up a testing and counselling centre and an AIDS research group in Chennai. The first findings of the deadly virus, in Tamil Nadu, was even read out in the state legislative assembly. She was also a permanent member of the Microbicides Committee of the Indian Council for Medical Research and Asia Data Safety Monitoring Board of the Division of AIDS, NIH, in the US.
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The Alliance India family mourns the loss of an extraordinary woman and celebrates her remarkable life as an example to us all to work selflessly towards ending the epidemic.
