Raman Gangakhedkar is a distinguished Indian scientist who is Scientist ‘G’ and Head, Epidemiology and Communicable Disease Division, ICMR, New Delhi. Dr Gangakhedkar became the face of ICMR when he regularly appeared on TV screens to brief the country about the planning and implementation of testing protocols for COVID-19.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar was born in 1962 (age 58 years; as in 2020) in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was very curious since childhood and developed scientific temper at an early age. He did his schooling from a Marathi-medium Zilla Parishad school. He did MBBS from Government Medical College, Aurangabad. Dr. Gangakhedkar also did a one-year training course in Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, USA.
Family
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar belongs to a Marathi family. There is not much information about his family.
livelihood
Dr. Gangakhedkar is an eminent physician and epidemiologist, known for his intensive involvement in formulating guidelines for HIV management as well as policy-making for HIV/AIDS control programs at the national level. After MBBS he started his career as a pediatrician. In 1989 he jumped into the field of HIV/AIDS; At a time when this dangerous disease was no less than a stigma in India. Later, when the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) was established in 1993, he moved from Mumbai to Pune.
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar giving lecture in Pune
Face of AIDS control program in India
With his unique and articulate vision, Dr. Gangakhedkar became the face of the AIDS control program in India. Soon after joining NARI in 1993, he started emphasizing on community participation in controlling this dangerous disease. In an interview, describing the major milestones in HIV/AIDS management in India, he said,
Community participation in decision making proved to be the most important game changer. Going beyond mere community mobilization, this included representatives of sex workers, MSM and injecting drug users sitting with experts and providing their input on policies and programmatic strategies to reach them.
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar in a meeting at NARI Pune
Another important step forward, according to Dr. Gangakhedkar, was the national investment in the Prevention of Parent-to-Child Transmission (PPTCT) program for the mainstream population in 1999, which provided, for the first time in the country’s history, free anti-infectives. Paved the way. Retroviral therapy for people living with HIV. Dr. Gangakhedkar played a very important role in starting the PPTCT program in India. He says,
I realized that one cannot make the system responsive unless one goes to the mainstream population. I thought PPTCT was one of the key areas to bring into the mainstream, because at that time (late 1990s) treatment was available to prevent mother-to-child transmission by providing short course zidovudine. I presented a proposal, which UNICEF also supported, to the Government of India, thus a feasibility study began at 11 centers with the zidovudine-based Bangkok regimen, which was later replaced by the more feasible single dose nevirapine regimen. And the PPTCT program was launched in India in 2001.”
When Dr. Gangakhedkar jumped into the field of HIV/AIDS, there was no treatment available in India, and he was often frustrated by only counseling patients, nothing more. But he was determined and invented his own method to solve this deadly disease. He conducted extensive studies and attempted to obtain first-hand information from HIV-infected hotspot areas. He says,
As a typical Indian male from a conservative Indian society, I initially felt very awkward when I started going to red light areas to create awareness about HIV/AIDS control. I didn’t know who sex workers were or how they lived. But with time I took a closer look at the problems they faced. “This made me understand what social exclusion is, which made me more committed to my cause.”
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar at NARI Pune
With such positive initiatives from the government, Dr. Gangakhedkar is confident about eradication of AIDS from India by 2030, he says,
Only by improving the quality of services and intensifying our strategies will we be able to achieve UNAIDS’ ultimate 90 goal of maintaining virological load suppression to eliminate HIV/AIDS.
Dr. Raman discussing with his senior colleagues
Face of ICMR during Covid-19
After serving as Director of the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) for a long time, Dr. Gangakhedkar joined the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in New Delhi as Scientist “G” and Head, Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Division. joined in. He became the face of ICMR when he appeared on TV screens at the National Media Center in New Delhi to update the country about the COVID-19 situation. In one such media briefing, he justified the implementation of lockdown in the country and stressed the need for basic medical awareness among the people, he said,
If I ask any very educated person how many chambers does your heart have or do you know where your spleen might be – one of the most powerful organs you know – the spleen is one of the most useful organs that Protects your body very strongly, it’s part of what we call the reticuloendothelial system. People will not be able to answer. Now if most of the literate people do not know much about health and if you have to teach healthy lifestyle to every average citizen of this country, who may or may not have gone to school, then he can only be functionally literate. There was no other way out other than trying to enforce the lockdown, trying to ensure that people understood social distancing.
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar along with other government officials giving information about COVID-19 at the National Media Center in Delhi
Facts/General Knowledge
- His colleagues consider him to be very outspoken and humorous.
Dr. Raman Gangakhedkar with his colleagues
- He has expertise in the clinical epidemiology of HIV infection, mother-to-child transmission of HIV infection, management of HIV infection, and chemokine receptors.
- In 1996, he earned a Fogarty Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA.
- In 2020, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contributions to the field of medical research. After receiving the honour, Dr. Gangakhedkar said,
I was able to do research on SID infecting women and children. I felt that the hard work we have done with the Padma Shri award is being noticed somewhere. “This could happen only because of the support of organizations working for AIDS awareness.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn